Fubuki: The Blizzard to Come
by Jazeoth 2.0
Summary: In his past life he was an army man and even after the war ended, he still craved that rush, the adrenaline. He needed it. In his final breaths, he prayed to what ever God that chose to listen to his pleas. His prayers were answered. He was reborn in Naruto, but not in Konoha. Kirigakure. He could only hope for the best. It didn't help that he had what they hated. A Kekkei Genkai.
1. Chapter 1

For a small village in the middle of nowhere there was quite a lot of chaos. There were people screaming and yelling, fear and anger overtaking them because of what they've discovered. Their actions have caused multiple buildings to catch on fire, destroying their homes.

All because of a child.

"Haku, Junko! Run, get away from here! I'll hold them off!" A voice yelled through the thick of snow. Clanging of steel could be heard throughout the small village.

"But Fubuki–" Haku started to back away, scared of the onslaught of fighting. They started surrounding him, ready to kill the seven year old. Haku screamed and ice protruded out from the ground killing a few of the many men and women. Haku's expression changed to horror as he looked at the bodies around him.

"Kill the child!" A woman shrieked, grabbing a spear from the ground.

"Demon, it's an Ice demon!"

"Burn it to ashes!" The person who shouted crazily waved torches towards Haku.

The adults charged at Haku, he collapsed to the ground in fear. Giving up.

" _Haku_!" Junko, Haku's mother cried out in terror. Her arm stretched out trying to reach out to her child. She had a burn mark on her arm from falling debris that fell off of a building. The shape of the object burned onto her skin. It was a stone roof tile. A cut on her arm bled out onto the fabric of her dress.

"Damn it!" Fubuki cursed, a puff of air dispersed, his breath visible from the cold temperatures. Blocking some punches and pushing people away, he weaved through the crowd of angry villagers. Jumping into the circle of people surrounding the child, he just barely grabbed Haku as he blocked a sword from hurting the child with his back. He scooped him into his arms and took off into the woods. The villagers ran after him yelling curses as the demon child left with him. They forgot about the demons mother, Junko, and left her behind in the snow.

Running past a training field he grabbed a few weapons that were lying around. Out of breath, he put Haku down.

"Haku..." He tried to calm the crying child, "Tch, gotta stop the bleeding," Fubuki did a hand sign and collected his chakra and froze his wound. He sighed in relief as the pain disappeared, replaced by the numbing feeling from the cold.

"Fu- Fubuki!"

"Shh, quiet." He covered Haku's mouth, he looked around and jumped into a tree for cover, bringing Haku with him, "Now, Haku. I need you to listen to me." Haku nodded shakily, gripping onto Fubuki's kimono. "I need you to stay here. I'll be right back and take care of you. Now don't move from this spot. Stay as still as you can." He put Haku on a crevice in the tree. He checked and no one would be able to see him from the ground.

"But what about–"

" _Haku_!" Fubuki cut him off harshly. Realizing the tone he used, he calmed down, "Don't worry, I'll help Junko." He cooed the shaking child. Hearing distant voices Fubuki cursed under his breath. "Now don't move." Jumping out of the tree, he ran back to intercept the villagers. He cursed again when they appeared in the clearing by Haku's hiding place. They were too close; Haku would be able to hear them. He would be lucky if he was out of earshot.

Fubuki eyed the villagers with an analytical eye. One had a scythe, two had swords. And a few had torches along with farming tools.

"Where's the child!" One of the men yelled, waving his torch around wildly.

"I'm not going to tell you. _Leave_." Fubuki warned, readying his kunai. Dual wielding them with one in a reverse grip.

"What's a child like you going to do to us, huh? Stupid 'leven year old child like you can't do a thing," Another commented arrogantly.

"Yeah, yeah! Do you want to get killed?" More spoke up, some taking brave, but stupid, steps forward trying to intimidate him.

"Lead us to the child, and you won't get hurt, _Fubuki_." A man came out of the crowd—the leader of sorts—looking devilished and dirty, but his face still recognizable.

"Really _Uncle_? I would have thought you knew me better." Fubuki's voice reeked of malice while addressing his uncle. He never really liked the guy. He only liked his aunt, Haku's mother. Fubuki took the kunai in his hand and twirled it in his fingers. "Though if you choose leave... _I won't have to kill you all_." He grinned, showing them pointed teeth which sent chills down their spines.

"Damn it, kill him!"

"That would be the _wrong_ choice." Fubuki said coolly as he slit a man's throat. Blood spurt out from the deep wound onto his face. Quickly wiping the blood off of his eyes, he started moving on to the next group of people that charged forward. Dodging and blocking hits with his kunai, he kicked a man in the groin sending him toppling down to his knees where Fubuki spun and dual killed him with another equally unlucky woman. Two more dead. Being an eleven year old wasn't an advantage, but his small frame allowed him to weave through the mob of people with only little difficulty. However it would be difficult with the farmers. They were physically stronger than him.

Blindsiding him, his arm got stabbed into by a farming hoe. "Fuck!" He called upon his chakra, and froze the wound before taking the weapon out. Kicking the person away, he threw the farming hoe and it went into a person's skull.

"He's an Ice user too!"

"We have to kill him!" They went in for another wave of assault when they stopped at a shout.

"Strategic retreat!" His Uncle yelled, and the other villagers looked confused but paled and started running away as they realized how many of them were lying on the ground in cold blood.

"Oh no you don't. You aren't getting away." Fubuki needed to stop them. If they were left alive word would get out and he would have mist ninja out for his, Junko's and Haku's heads. He needed to contain the secret, and for that, they would all have to die.

Running into the middle of the crowd he did a few hand signs he used one of the only ice release jutsu's he knew, and his own original jutsu, "Freeze Frame!" The temperature cooled around him and the Villagers soon found themselves not being able to move. They were all frozen, encased in ice from the neck down.

"You little _shit_!–" A man barely said as his head got sent flying, lopped off by Fubuki's kunai. And one by one they were killed until only one was left.

"Well it's just you and me _Uncle_ " He spat out, not even willing to use the scum's name.

" _Fubuki_."

"If only you could have loved your son and wife unconditionally, then this would have never happened."

"Oh, just kill me now." He spat, literally spitting on Fubuki's face. He would have flipped him the bird if he could move. But he was a icicle so he couldn't move—the only icicle with a head.

"..." Fubuki narrowed his eyes but otherwise remained neutral faced. He wanted to kill the bastard right then and there, but he thought otherwise, thinking of what Haku would want. He turned around, ignoring the string of profanities that came out of his Uncle's mouth directed towards him and Haku, and went to get Haku from the crevice in the tree.

"Fubuki!" Haku paled at his appearance. He was covered in blood. His snow white hair and lightly tan skin was matted in blood like the rest of his black Kimono. His eyes traveled down to his forearm, where the farming hoe penetrated him. "Y-Your arm! It's–"

"Haku." Fubuki said seriously, ignoring the Haku's worrying, "Would you like to see your father again?"

Haku stiffened. "I- I don't know. H-He tried to k-kill me..." Haku stuttered out, not sure what to do.

"Let me put it another way then, do you want to see him before he _dies_?" Haku's eyes widened in shock, "Don't worry, he's alive and kicking right now," Fubuki chucked darkly baring his pointed teeth. _Though hypothetically, as he is currently a Popsicle._

Haku nodded quickly, he wanted to know, and would his father change his mind and choose to love him? Or would he still choose to betray him.

Picking the small Haku up, Fubuki covered his eyes and slowly walked to the clearing, stepping over bodies to the ice statues of frozen dead people. "Haku. Here he is." Haku tried to turn and look, but Fubuki stopped him. Haku's father glared at Fubuki and Haku. He didn't voice anything, but just silently glared at his son and the mass murderer holding him. He couldn't help a twinge of guilt come across his mind.

"W-why won't you let me see him?"

"I don't want to subject you to... this." He referred to the sea of blood surrounding him.

"But you said you would let me see him!"

"Are you sure...? You will most definitely regret it." Fubuki said and he saw the gears turn in Haku's head. Haku was by no means a dumb child. He was very smart, and he knew he would put the pieces together.

Haku quivered in his arms and thought for a moment. Fubuki was covered in blood, which meant a battle and people have died. He could smell the strong scent, the retched scent of blood. Does he really want to see his father? Yes, he needed to know. He needed to see his face when he heard the truth.

"I-I want to see him." He said, determined.

Fubuki chuckled darkly, "Looks like we have a brave soul." He let Haku turn around in his grip. Haku gasped, eyes widened and skin went white as the snow around them. Well the snow that wasn't dyed in blood. Looking around Haku saw people on the ground and about twenty encased in ice, missing their heads. He could count how many people Fubuki killed, fifty-three not counting his father who was frozen from the neck down.

"F-father."

No reply, just a cold heartless stare.

"Father!" Haku said louder and more determined. He wanted, no _needed_ to get him to talk, "Why?! _Why_ do you hate me! Why try to kill me?! I _loved_ you!" Haku cried out.

Fubuki's Uncle stayed deathly silent.

"Well do you regret your actions?" Fubuki asked in monotone. He raised an eyebrow, was that laughter?

"Heh… Ha... Haha... Hahahahahaha!" Insane laughter rang out of the only living person left, "You think I would love you? A _demon_? HA! Your power, everyone will hate you, your mother will die and so will you. I will kill you with my own hands!"

"You hear that Haku? He's the actual demon, and demons must be _killed_." Haku gave a stiff nod in Fubuki's chest. He grinned, adrenaline still effecting him in weird ways, and in one swift motion his father's head was sent flying through the air, trail of blood following.

Haku screamed into Fubuki's blood stained Kimono, crying. Minutes pass and Haku passes out from fatigue.

"Now to get you back to your mother..." Fubuki started coughing and hacked up blood. "I need to get stronger... I need to be able to protect you."

Walking back to the small village, he found Junko collapsed in a heap on the ground, sobbing.

"Junko..." He called out, her head snapped up when she heard his voice. Her eyes widened in fear as Fubuki approached with her son in his arms. Judging from his appearance, he killed all of them. They were the last three of the Yuki clan.

Her eyes turned to Haku, the only blood on him came from Fubuki's body.

Fubuki set Haku down into her lap. The tired aftermath one experienced after a battle started to sink in. He smiled to her, "Jun...ko. Haku is safe... now." Fubuki rasped out before his vision went black and fell like a rag doll, fainting from the chakra exhaustion and overall fatigue he felt.

 _ **(Dreamscape**_ **)**

 _"Alright kids, shut those mouths or I'll shut them manually!" He yelled slamming a textbook on the teaching pedestal to shut them up._

Wait, was that himself?

 _"But Mr. Weatherston-"_

It was! He could somehow tell that the man was him, he couldn't think of how, but he just knew.

 _"What, Tom Tom?" He raised an eyebrow, amused at the class clowns antics. The class laughed at the nickname he gave Tommy._

He was a teacher, about middle aged. He had dirty blond hair, glasses and wore a dress shirt, pants and tie. And that language, it was foreign, though he could somehow understand it.

 _"What if rocks are actually soft, but tense up when you go to tough them!" Tommy raised his voice as he went along._

 _He deadpanned, "Is that what you kids talk about now'a days?" He said sighing at the end. "Well, you would do well in philosophy Tom Tom." He chuckled and walked down the rows of desks, rolling up the papers he had stapled together in his hands._

 _"What's that Charles?" Another teen raised his hand, waving it around to get his attention._

 _"What did I tell you about calling me that, Jake?" He hit Jake upside the head with his tube of paper lightly. "Just because we're related it doesn't mean you could call me that here!" He sighed, "But I digress. Philosophy is about the human mind and how it works, the strange things that go on inside it. It deals with the thought process of the mind. I took the class in university."_

 _"What was it like?" A girl asked, curious about his past._

 _"Well Midora dear, it was_ verystrange _..." His all-knowing-teacher-eyes moved to a student who was passing notes around behind his back. "Would you like to read this note aloud, Mr. Kendrick? Because I'm sure if you can pass it around in class, you can surely say it aloud, for_ everyone _to hear." He said, raising an eyebrow while crossing his arms, waiting for a sufficient answer._

 _"Teehee?" The boy said nervously, hoping to get the teacher off his back. A few students laughed._

 _Oh no he didn't let it slide, "Would you like me to read it for you?" Kendrick shook his head nervously. "Then don't pass notes!" He whacked his paper mace on his desk, trying to make an impact on the boy._

 _"Yes Mr. Weatherston..." He said in defeat._

 _"Anyways... What was I saying..."_

 _"You were talking about Philosophy." A student spoke up, taking a break from his homework that had been handed out._

 _"Ah yes, the class was quite strange. The professor talked about the topic that if you couldn't see something and it was in an enclosed space, a room per-say, did it exist?" The class looked confused but interested. "For example, if a room's door was closed, did the room and its contents exist...? Yes, crazy I know. I thought the same thing. It's not like a room would suddenly turn into a null void of nothingness."_

 _"But what if there was a window in that said room!" A female student spoke up._

 _"Hmm, well that's a good question..." The school bell rang, interrupting his train of thought._

 _"Eh-hem. Now, since you guys made me talk for the last of the period, you'll have to do that sheet I gave you at home. Your usual teacher will be back on Monday to get that work handed in..._ right _class?"_

 _"Yes Mr. Weatherston!" They coursed._

 _"Then you guys are dismissed, have a nice weekend."_

 _The bustling noises of paper and chatter filled the room. Some students got up to either talk to him, or ask questions about his lecture._

 _The noise started to fade away. Fubuki who had been watching noticed the blurring of the scene. "No wait! I want to know more about myself!" He yelled as the picture faded into nothingness._

 _ **(Dreamscape end)**_

Eyes fluttering open, Fubuki woke up to the moonlight from a window on his face. He looked around, he was on a bed and Haku was curled up by him at the end of the bed. "Haku..." He whispers, smiling. Then he thought of his dream.

Had he been reborn? Why? Or was that another person entirely? What triggered the dream or memory? Racking through his mind he soon realized that he zoned out starring at the moon. Wiggling his way out of the sheets, he moved Haku out of the way gently; he didn't need to wake him after what he went through.

Slowly getting up of the bed he stood his full height and felt the pull of bandages. Had Junko helped him? He would have thought that she would have left him for dead after what happened. Massacring the village in cold blood for one little boy and his mother.

Sighing, he slowly descended down the old creaky stairs. _Shit, this might wake Junko up..._ He thought. Finally down the antique stairs, he made way to the kitchen. On the way there he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and stopped. Man he needed a nice bath or shower. His white hair was all crusty from the blood and he still had some wounds he would need to clean thoroughly, though he could tell that he was cleaned somewhat. Junko must have wiped the blood off of his face. Staring at himself, he noticed how cold his eyes looked. The light was gone from his blue eyes. Well he did just murder a whole freaking village of murderous psychopaths. Sighing, he broke away from the mirror and made way to his original destination, the kitchen.

On the table there was a note and some food.

 _'Fubuki, you'll be hungry when you wake up. This'll give you the energy you need.'_ There was a doodle of a smiley face with its tongue out.

Fubuki smiled at the note, she acted as his second mother. She had taken him in after his mother and father died after being attacked by rouge ninjas. His mother was related to Junko. He was grateful for her kindness and wanted to repay her somehow. He thought saving her son was a good one to add to the completed side of the mental list.

Slowly sitting down, he winced at the sudden sharp pain that cascaded down his back. His back wound must have opened again. He could feel the blood soaking through the bandages. A string of curses went through his mind as he gathered his chakra to freeze the wound shut.

"Damn, that hurts like a bitch," he mumbled to himself. "Now I really _do_ need a shower..." though if he had one now, the sound of the pipelines would wake Junko and Haku up.

Slowly lifting the tin foil off from off the plate to reduce the amount of noise, he could only imagine a veil of golden light coming out as he lifted the tin foil off. He was happy to find that it was a large portion of food. He could eat a whale for God's sake.

After he finished eating the delicious food, he brought the dishes back to the sink to wash. Before washing the dishes he grabbed a large cup, filled it with water, and chugged the liquid. He was that thirsty.

Walking down the hallway to Junko's bedroom, he checked to how she was doing. Before he saw that she had some burns and a rather large cut on her arm. He opened the door to see her sleeping. She had already bandaged her wounds.

Fubuki walked over to her and checked for a fever. Putting a hand to her forehead she didn't feel warm. However, she flinched and woke up.

"Oh Fubuki dear, you startled me." She smiled.

"I was just checking if you were okay... Also thank you for the food."

She smiled, "No problem. But there's something we need to talk about." She said, a serious tone taking over from her previous kind one.

"Yes, I figured we would have to talk about it..." He looked at the tired Junko, "But you need to rest."

She chuckled, "So do you." He laughed lightly back and she smiled before slowly closing her eyes, dosing back to sleep. Fubuki, however, did not rest. He needed some fresh air. Going for a walk, he found the same spot where he massacred the villagers. The bodies were obviously still there.

He smiled to himself darkly. _Why did I find that fun? I feel... proud. I liked that feeling, the adrenaline..._ He picked up the kunai he used and hid them on his body. They would come in handy eventually.

Moving to a... _Less_ bloodied area, Fubuki started training lightly, doing a few chakra exercises. He had started training at the age of three by his parents, though they couldn't train him anymore as they had been hunted by rogue ninja when he was six. His mother helped him learn about his ice release in secret while his father also taught him about his clan. He would have to rummage through his old house to find the hidden scrolls. All he knew of his father's clan was that they were called the Tatsumaki. The opposite of the Uzumaki and were their rival clan. They had lots more spiritual chakra than normal, opposite to the Uzumaki's physical chakra, and specialized in being front line, combative medic ninja rather than seals but they still worked with them for medical purposes.

He remembered the faces of his parents. His mother Nami Yuki, she was a crazy woman from what he remembered. Her long black hair and blue eyes were shockingly pretty; and his father Kazehaya Tatsuki was where he got his own white hair from. He was also eccentric, and also had shocking electric blue eyes; though he was rather sarcastic. He laughed, remembering a petty argument they had.

Shaking from his period of nostalgia, he continued training before he started feeling depressed.

Moving on to practice his ice manipulation he noticed the sun rising. He walked back to the house to make breakfast. It was the least he could do after what happened to them. Junko and Haku would have it harder than himself...

 **A.N : Well my third story in progress-except for one I haven't posted on here yet, I'm currently rewriting it - I recently thought of the storyline, though it was hard to get this chapter as long as it was. I'm used to more comical, fast paced writing. :/**

 **Anyways, how was it so far? Please vote or comment on how it was! :D**

 **Also I won't be updating until I have a bunch of chapter stocked up... Because then I can actually update regularly unlike my other story... *Laughes nervously***

 **P.S The cover was done by yours truly so no takieses please. :P**


	2. Chapter 2

Smoke, that's all he could smell. No, the building was not on fire. It wasn't on fire, though however the _food_ that was currently cooking was. There was also the faint scent of the remnants of what used to be fish.

In a hurry to cool the pan, he dumped the charcoal black fish in the sink. Nope, he hadn't thought that through. The sink was full of water and there was a sudden bout of steam that hissed throughout the kitchen. In a panic to get rid of the smell, and the smoke, he used a small wind jutsu to dissipate the smoke before it went into the other rooms.

He grimaced at the mess he made, "Fuck making a fancy breakfast, I'll just make eggs." He huffed out, annoyed at his atrocious cooking skills.

Making some toast along with those eggs, he took a gamble and risked a try at making bacon. He had to admit that it wasn't too crispy, must have been a rare stroke of luck that the bacon didn't burst into flames, just short of an oil fire. Putting some butter and cheese on the toast he put an egg and two slices of bacon on each breakwich. He licked his lips at the smell. Satisfied, he put the food on the table and started scrubbing the mess of a frying pan he created. He wouldn't eat without cleaning it, otherwise he would forget about it and Junko would clean it for him.

"Oh, you made breakfast," said Junko with a light rasp to her voice.

The voice startled Fubuki so much that he jumped and hit his head on the cabinets above the sink. He had been in his own little world cursing the damn pan into oblivion that he didn't notice his aunt come in.

"Fuuu- _Ow_! That hurts like a-" he mumbled incoherent words angrily. He's lucky that he caught himself before he swore, as Junko didn't tolerate foul language, you couldn't believe how strict she was with foul language. "Yeah, _ouch,_ " he hissed in pain, "you and Haku were sleeping." He rubbed the growing mark on the top of his head still in pain. He used some ice chakra to cool it so it wouldn't swell as much. "Food's on the table, I'll go get Haku."

"Okay Fubuki." She said as she opened the fridge. He assumed she was getting the drinks.

He found Haku sleeping peacefully in his bed. The kid deserved to be happy, he was pure. The opposite of himself, he was tainted. Fubuki was a killer, and he enjoyed it. He wasn't sure what was more corrupt than that.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he stopped staring at him like a creep and woke him up.

"Haku, get your little ass out of my bed." Getting a slurred response that sounded roughly like 'don't eat my snowman' Fubuki poked his forehead, making Haku pull the blankets over his head. "Unless you _want_ me to _'eat your snowman',_ " He quoted, "I suggest you get up."

Finally getting an actual legible reply, Haku slowly got up from his position of being wrapped up like a little caterpillar.

"Breakfast?"

"Yes, breakfast." Fubuki replied, amused as Haku wasn't usually like this. Though he could tell Haku was out of it from the bags under his eyes.

"Mmkay..." He got up and brought the duvet covers with him down to the kitchen.

Fubuki chuckled, "This is the best I could do." He gestured to the half-asleep kid wearing the blanket like a robe.

Junko smiled and sat down to eat. Not wanting to bring up what happened the previous day in front of Haku, she waited until she could speak to Fubuki alone. They ate in an eerie silence.

Haku finished his food with a small 'thank you' and trudged himself and Fubuki's duvet back to his room. He was obviously scared or at least traumatized by the incident. It would be best to leave him alone. He seemed completely out of it as he missed his mouth a few times when eating.

Once Haku was gone, the once eerie atmosphere changed drastically.

"Junko..." Fubuki started off, serious expression appearing on his face, "I want to become a ninja."

"I know," She said, and Fubuki looked surprised, "I have known since you started living here. After your parents died, you would disappear in the mornings and at night. You would train by yourself during those times. I followed you once and saw you use our kekkei genkai. Though before you go, I would like to train you for a week, then I'll move with Haku."

 _Well that's a lot to take in... So after training in whatever Junko has planned, she would take Haku and go into hiding. Then I would travel to Kirigakure and join the ninja academy_. He blinked, "...Wait... You followed me? ... Well then, I forgot that you used to be a ninja for a second. Anyways that sounds like a good plan. Though where would you stay?"

"I would get a part time job and start anew."

Fubuki nodded. "When would we start training?"

"After lunch, I need to rest for a bit beforehand."

"Sounds good."

In the meantime he would have to dispose of all the dead bodies. If any ninja passed by... he didn't even _want_ to think what might happen. Grumbling to himself, he grabbed a shovel and went to the empty field were all the villagers laid dead in the snow. It took a good hour and a half to dig a hole big enough to fit all the bodies. To make use of the space, he cut off the limbs and fit them in. He didn't forget to take off any valuables before the makeshift burial, there was no sympathy involved. He was careful to not get any more blood on him than he already did, but he couldn't avoid some unexpected spurts of blood, he would definitely have to take a bath afterwards.

Flopping down into a pile of snow, he cursed, as pain shot through his back, his back wound opened again. Slowly getting up, he walked back to the house. "Junko, my wound opened again! Can you help me bandage it?" He called. Taking off his sandals, he walked through the halls to the bathroom.

Junko came in soon after with a roll of bandages and ointment. Obviously angry, "What did I tell you?! Take it easy!"

"But didn't you say you were going to train me?" He retorted cheekily.

"Yes, but it would only deal with chakra. No physical training when injured. Now slide your kimono down."

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am." He sung, he did as he was told to and slid his kimono open and took his arms out of the sleeves.

Grimacing, Junko undid the old bandage. She had to be careful peeling the parts that were dried onto the wound. Now that the wound was exposed, she started cleaning the bloody mess.

Fubuki hissed, "Damn that stings. Can't I just freeze it?"

"No, that's only good for when in battle to stop the bleeding, or for temporary relief. Now be quiet so I can finish this." Junko said the last part rather forcefully. She put a bit more pressure than necessary on his back.

"Ow, ow-ow-ow- _ow_! I get it, I get it! I'll shut my trap!" He huffed out.

With the new bandages in place, Fubuki put his new clean kimono back on properly. "That feels nice."

Junko chuckled, "That might be because of the Vaseline." She explained.

"Hmm." He mused. "Well I'm gonna see how Haku is fairing."

Assuming Haku went back to his own bedroom, he opened the door to see the bed made and untouched. "Why go to my room?" He asked himself, mumbling. Turning around, he went to his own bedroom. Before opening the door he paused, he heard sniveling. Quietly opening and closing the door, he entered, and carefully walked towards the bundle of blankets; he leaned down and hugged it.

Haku jumped, and further burrowed into the blankets. Fubuki chuckled, "I'm trying to comfort you, why hide?"

The room was silent for a while before Fubuki spoke again. A sad frown came across his face, "You're scared of me, aren't you?" Haku didn't reply, but he got his answer when Haku flinched under the blankets. Sighing, he got up to leave his room. Before closing the door he turned to Haku who was just peeking out and looking at him. He smiled sadly, "Just know this Haku. I love you like a brother, and I would never be able to bear hurting you." Closing the door, he could hear the sniveling start up again. He really wanted to go back and give him a proper hug. But he couldn't do that. He thought for a moment, of course Haku was scared of him. He murdered the village, and his father in front of him. He just hoped that that fear wouldn't last.

Moving away from the door, he walked downstairs to Junko's room. Knocking on the door he heard footsteps. "Are you ready for training?" Fubuki nodded in reply. He looked depressed, but Junko felt that if she tried to talk about it with him, it would make it worse.

Moving out to the training field Fubuki always used, she started her lecture. "Our kekkei genkai is the ice release, and it is made up of two chakra natures. If you had already guessed it is water and wind. When we use our ice chakra the area around us becomes cold." Fubuki was listening intently to her lecture. "One of our techniques us to make weapons out of our ice," She opened her palm and made a staff appear with a fancy snowflake patterning as if to show off. "Even though this is rather difficult to do, if you can make these weapons within a second it is very useful. I will also teach you a few jutsu's when you get this down."

"Before we get to that," She continued, "I would like you to meditate and find your chakra. Trust me, even though it's boring, it helps a _lot_ in the long run."

He sat down and tried to meditate, after about five minutes he found the core of his chakra. It felt warm, but cool at the same time – as if that isn't confusing enough already – like fire in a shell of thick ice.

"Now surface all the chakra you can."

He complied and felt the air around him cool by at least fifteen degrees.

"Good Fubuki. You have a decent amount of chakra. Though if you want to get larger reserves, which is always a good thing, use up almost all your chakra before you sleep once every few days. It also helps you fall asleep since it tires you out. Moving on, now imagine a weapon and try to shape your chakra into that weapon. This may take a while, so I'll leave you to it. Find me when you could make ten copies of three different weapons."

Junko walked away and looked back, she was glad he was taking this seriously. He would have to learn how to control his chakra to be able to hide his kekkei genkai.

Fubuki was thinking on what weapons he should make. "Hmm, definitely kunai and senbon, they're relatively small, but what about close combat... Hmm, what about a spear or bō staff like Junko's... That would be good against sword users." He nodded to himself. He read up on some things and heard that there were really strong sword users in Kiri. The seven swordsman of the mist.

Gathering chakra in his hand, he imagined a senbon. It would be better to start off with something small and work his way up. He took a senbon out for comparison. Trying to solidify his chakra into ice was hard. Wouldn't hand signs be better to use? But Junko hadn't instructed him to use them, so he continued trying without the hand signs.

Sighing at his thirtieth failure of a senbon, he took a break. It had started to snow and Fubuki found a soft patch of fluffy snow to lie on. Tired from all the chakra usage, he dozed off in a nap.

 **(Dreamscape)**

 _Gunshots fired throughout the battle field. People fell, dead._

 _Boom!_

 _"Take cover! Incoming raid!" There was a loud shout from a colleague._

What, another dream?

 _The sirens blared throughout the trenches as more aircrafts could be seen. The sky's dark and threatening clouds were about to burst with another bout of rain and lightning. The weather was fitting; always wet, murky and foggy in the trenches where they stationed._

 _Ceasing fire, the men ran off towards the nearest bunker._

 _An army man fell over, catching his leg on a dead person getting sucked into the mud of the trench. Someone bent over to help him up._

 _Not saying a word to each other they rushed to the bunker. Their haven in this time of war. Panic set it when a bomb landed within a fatal radius the braced themselves._

 _It was a dud, it didn't go off properly. They sighed in relief and continued to the nearest bunker._

 _"Thanks Charles, couldn't have made it without ya."_

This was him? He looked totally different than the last dream. He looked younger and was filthy. His blond hair was covered in mud and grime, its previous colour unknown to those who haven't seen it already.

 _Charles was about to reply, but was cut off by the bombs dropped from above. Tremors that felt like earthquakes rattled throughout the underground bunker. Even seasoned veterans flinched by the impacts around them._

 _Soon the sirens went off to single the end of the air raid._

 _"Charles! Colonel Ross needs you to assemble!" Someone called from across the bunker._

 _"Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming." Charles said, grabbing a mug of joe. That's what they called the apparently '_ nutritional _' bland army rations. Downing it in one go, he left the bunker to meet up with the Colonel at the meeting point._

 _"First Sergeant Weatherston reporting for duty, Sir!" He saluted the Colonel._

 _"First Sergeant, you are being put on a special mission. You will flank the enemy and take out their supply line."_

 _Charles was scared, but he had an excited glint in his eyes. This was his first mission invading enemy territory._

 _"You are the only one that can pull this off First Sergeant. Your stealth is the best out there. You may have an hour to prepare and gather the necessary materials."_

 _"Sir yes Sir!"_

 _Before Charles left the colonel stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Be careful out there," with a small, sad smile._

 _The dream blurred and faded into another scene._

 _Charles was sneaking around the enemy's base planting time bombs under the vehicles and in the medical and supply tents._

 _Sneaking around a tree, he almost got caught by the Sergeant Major of the enemy's forces. The adrenaline in him skyrocketed, he was excited. Taking out his knife, he snuck around behind him. The Sergeant Major was out for a smoke behind a supply tent. He was near the bomb that Charles had placed. He weaved around a tree into his blind spot and slit his throat along where his vocal cords were. The man died in a few seconds._

 _Hiding him in a large bush, he stealthily ran off to where his getaway vehicle was. Driving away a significant distance, he hit the red button to set the bombs off. Right after the resounding sounds of multiple explosions, he drove off, racing away from the camp._

 **(Dreamscape end)**

Waking up by not being able to breath, and not being able to see, he panicked. He was covered in a few layers of snow. Jolting up from his laying position, the snow gave way around him.

"Damn, that dream was intense..." Fubuki panted out and got up out of the deep, body shaped hole. "Wait a minute... If my dreams are triggered by something, shouldn't I have had that one yesterday?" He thought aloud, "Messed up logic, hmm brain?" He huffed out amused, before sneezing abruptly.

He felt his wound open... _again_. "For fucks sake, doctors would _hate_ me. Hell they would probably maim me so I wouldn't be able to move until things heal." Grumbling, he used his chakra to freeze the wound before it could bleed out again. Also since his clothes were wet from the snow, that also meant his bandages were frozen to his back. Realizing this, he started mumbling incoherence sentences with a _lot_ more swears than necessary.

He headed back to the house. He had been thinking of having a shower and bath all day, and now he would finally uphold that thought. He still even had dried blood in his hair. Walking in the household, he went straight to the traditional Japanese bathroom after saying a brief ' _I'm back_!', and ran the water for a bath.

In the laundry room that connected to the toilet and bathroom, he was taking off his kimono. He started to carefully pull the bandages off of the wound. Pulling too hard, he cursed at the pain that shot through his back. He would need help with this.

Sliding the laundry rooms door open, he poked his head out, "Junko, would you be able to help me?"

He heard footsteps come down the hall, "With what?" She asked.

"You'll find out if you come over here." He yelled. He heard a sigh and more footsteps. Though they were now getting closer. Seeing her turn around the corner she saw him with his head poking out of the sliding door. She raised an eyebrow.

"I want to take a bath, but I can't get my bandages off." He said and opened the door for her to come in.

She took a look at his back. "What did I tell you about freezing your wounds?!"

"Wait," Fubuki said before Junko went into a full out rant, "I was in the training field, I tripped and I would have bleed out and died if I didn't freeze it." He explained, even if it was exaggerated, she didn't need to know that.

Junko saw the reasoning and calmed down. "Have you ever thought of unfreezing it?"

He blinked, "You could do that?"

"Yes," She sighed, "Just take the chakra away from the wound and the ice will disappear."

He concentrated on taking the chakra away and felt the ice go away. "Can you take it off now? _Without_ it hurting like hell?"

She chuckled, "Possibly," and she peeled the bandages off. The cut was now fully visible. It ran down from Fubuki's upper back and all the way down diagonally. She looked relieved, yes it would scar, but it wasn't infected.

"Thanks Jun-" Fubuki was cut off by her coughing, "You alright?"

She held her free hand up to indicate him to wait. When she stopped coughing she horsed out, "Y-yeah, thanks. Just a cold I caught." She smiled.

"Hmm...Well, I'm going to have a bath now, so please leave before I strip."

Junko laughed lightly, "Yes, yes, I'm leaving." She said sliding the door closed.

 _Is it really just a cold?_ Fubuki thought as he stripped down to his birthday suit. He went into the bathroom to find the bath almost full and turned the tap off.

Before getting into the traditional Japanese bath, he would need to wash up. Sitting at the stool before the shower head, he rinsed his body off. His hair now wet, he squeezed shampoo onto his hands and began lathering his blood crusted hair. The lather turned a dull red pinkish colour from all the dried blood. Some of the shampoo ran down his arm. He clenched his teeth when it went into his arm wound where the farming hoe hit him. He quickly ran water over it.

Rinsing his hair, he put the conditioner in. Junko always said he had beautiful hair, so he wanted to take care of it. Moving on to wash his body, he first took the shower head off of the attachment and rinsed his wounds.

"Fuck that stings," But before long, the hot water pulsating on his wounds started feeling nice. The pink water coming off him turned clear. That's when he knew it was time to clean the wound.

Fubuki got injured a lot with all his secret training, so Junko took to getting him special soap to clean his wounds in the shower. It stung like hell, but it was a great product and it did its job. Like bad tasting cold medicine. Bleh, Oxley's.

With his wounds finally clean, he cleaned the rest of his body, carefully avoiding his wounds since he was now using regular soap. Putting the shower head back in place along with the other supplies, he slowly got into the bath.

He sighed in pure bliss, until he got to his back wound, then he hissed. The burning sensation slowly went away as he sunk into the tub. The other wounds burned similarly, though it wasn't as bad as his arm and back injuries.

Relaxing for a good half an hour, he finally got out feeling light headed. He had an abnormally high body temperature already, so he tended to overheat and feint or get heatstroke easily.

Carefully drying himself off, he looked into the full length mirror in the corner of the dressing room.

His feathery hair was now pure white, free from all the filth it once had in it. He looked at his collarbone there was another cut that would scar. Turning around, he looked at his back, that wound would surely scar. Though it would be an epic scar he thought mildly.

Looking for his clothes, he found a few rolls of new bandages and a freshly cleaned white nemaki cotton kimono. He smiled. Junko must have snuck in and placed them there. He slowly put the bandages around his torso and forearm, he put the kimono on. He sleeps in nemaki kimonos as they are comfortable and are cooler than regular pajamas.

He put his two feathers in his hair and excited the room. He was hit with the delicious smell of stew. Heading towards the kitchen he greeted Junko.

"You were in there quite a while… I was starting to get worried."

Fubuki chuckled. "That worry is appreciated and wasn't in vein," She gave him a look, "I almost fell asleep in there." He moved to sit down at the table.

She laughed, "Well I'm glad you didn't." She turned the ovens element off. "You look refreshed."

He stretched and laid his head on cool the table. "Mmhmm," he yawned. "Do you need help?"

"Not anymore, no. I just finished, though you know what you _can_ do? You can set the table."

"Okay."

The table now set, Junko called for Haku, "Haku, dinner time!" A moment later they heard a thump along with a groan, then footsteps.

"You think he was sleeping?" Junko asked.

"No doubt about it." He replied, amused.

Haku soon came in the kitchen in his pajamas. This time without the duvet blankets. His mother set his food on the table.

Haku glanced to Fubuki, then to the food. He grabbed his bowl of food and left to his room.

Fubuki watched Haku as he left. He felt a pang in his heart. He was hurt that he was ignored, that Haku didn't want to be _near_ him. Even though he understood his reasoning, it still hurt. Hell, he was scared of himself.

Junko was about to yell when Fubuki stopped her. "It's okay..."

"No it's not! It's thanks to you we survived!"

" _Junko!_ Leave it, its fine." Fubuki sighed, "I scare him, I killed everyone. In his eyes I'm just a killer, a cold hearted murderer." Fubuki started to feel numb; the hurt, sadness and the guilt leaving him.

Haku was outside the door of the kitchen, he forgot to grab his drink and he overheard everything. It was true, Fubuki scared him. He was too much of a coward to face him. Saddened, he went back to his room.

Finished dinner, Fubuki needed to take his mind off things. He wanted to train. "Junko... Can you help me? I need help with making kunai, I got the senbon down, but I can't get the shape of kunai right."

Junko wanted to stop him, but the look in his eyes, they were so... Empty. She smiled softly, "Just give me a minute, okay? I'm almost done here." Fubuki nodded and left to go to the backyard porch.

Done washing the dishes, Junko went to help Fubuki. He was watching the snow fall.

"You ready?" Fubuki nodded in reply.

"Okay so imagine the shape..."

A half an hour later, Fubuki made a proper kunai. The blade was sharp, the hilt was long enough to hold, and the circle at the end was large enough to put a finger through.

Junko was astonished, Fubuki was a natural, he just needed the right guidance and he soaked it up like a sponge. "Now work at making more of them at the same time. Once you can make ten at a time, work on making them faster each time. Okay?"

"Yes, thank you." He gave her a smile. Junko felt relieved, he was starting to recover. Yes his physical wounds were healing well, but emotional trauma was much harder to fix.

"Now get to bed, its late mister." She ordered.

"Mmmkay," He mumbled out, tired from using his chakra too much.

When he left, Junko collapsed onto the ground coughing. _Just a week Junko, then I can go._ She thought, determined _._ Grabbing a handful of snow she put it on her forehead. She shakily got up and went back to her room. Using her chakra to cool her body down, she passed out on her bed clutching her side.


	3. Chapter 3

Junko was always the first one up in the mornings, she needed to get herself together and look the way she normally did for the children. They couldn't know. They couldn't know that it was already too late for her to recover. The most time she had left was about a week, and that's if she was lucky. Junko had to prepare herself for the worst; she had to be strong, as the pain would be unbearable at times. She would have to persevere and act like it didn't hurt.

She would always find Fubuki gone after her morning routine, but she knew he was training. He couldn't stand being caged up indoors. He preferred the cool winter temperatures outside.

Junko had to worry if he was like his mother, Nami. His mother had an absurd amount of talent as a shinobi with her mastery of her kekkei genkai, and Nami was the only person she knew within her clan that was able to control ice by her will. But with that power she had a condition that made her venerable to heat stroke. She smiled remembering her older sister. She was always smiling and happy, even when times were rough.

Nami was the type of person that trusted people too easily, so when Nami introduced Junko to her future husband Kazehaya, she immediately took a disliking to the man. Though in due time she just found that he just wasn't good at meeting new people, he would hole his emotions up and shy away from them. Once he warmed up to her, she was surprised at his jokingly sarcastic personality. Kazehaya Tatsumaki was also a talented shinobi, he specialized in taijutsu and medical ninjutsu in combat.

Junko smiled sadly; remembering them always brought her to the happy times of her life.

She stopped thinking for a moment, there was one other thing she had to worry about... would Fubuki turn out as eccentric as them? She sighed at the thought, his parents were crazy. Then she wondered how her train of thought derailed to think of such things. Looking around, she realized that she had been thinking for too long and got up to finish her daily routine as per usual.

The rest of the week went by slowly with the same routine. Get up, change her own bandages, make breakfast, Fubuki would train, and Junko would help him occasionally. She was shocked at the process he made he had already gotten the weapon making down, and was now working at making them at a faster pace on the side while they went over a new topic. They went over the abilities of their special chakra and how it worked. She gave him ice centric chakra control exercises to work on during her lectures.

Haku was another problem. He shelled himself up in his room, avoiding Fubuki as if he was the plague. This worried Junko, and she came to realize that she had become even _more_ of a worry wart than she already was.

Now it was about time that they would leave their separate ways. She would take Haku to live somewhere else for him to live a new, happy life. A fresh start.

Junko was packing her things when Fubuki came down the stairs.

"Junko, are you sure you can carry that?" Fubuki asked, worried for her because she looked as if she were in pain from carrying the light bag.

"Yes dear, I'm fine." She gave him a pained smile. Then Haku walked into the room, giving Junko some of his clothes.

Fubuki gave her an unimpressed look, huffing softly, "Just wait a minute, I'll be right back." He glanced towards Haku who just avoided his gaze. Fubuki turned to go to his room, ignoring Haku. If he didn't want to talk, he wouldn't talk to him, even if he didn't show it he still felt that pang of hurt in his chest.

Ascending up the old stairs, he moved to his room and rummaged through his packed bag. He found what he was looking for and took the empty scroll from it. He thought it could carry food for the trip, but he could also just hunt for food, like rabbits or fish. So he decided that he could lighten her load by sealing all of her stuff into it.

"Here Junko, this'll help." He tossed her the scroll from the doorway.

"Where did you get this?" She asked, catching the medium scroll.

"I got a few from my old house before I came here. That's how I brought all my clothes and everything else." By a few he had five, four now that he gave one to Junko.

"Thank you Fubuki, this will really help a lot." She smiled to him, and went to hug him.

"J-Junko, this isn't something worth a hug." He said awkwardly, not used to the bodily contact she was giving him.

Junko was about to say something, but she got a sudden wave a pain and the affection was cut short from a coughing fit. She kneeled down onto the floor coughing into her hand. She felt warm liquid stream down her arm.

Blood.

"Junko? _Junko_?! What's wrong?!" He asked in a panic and rubbed her back, trying to sooth the pain. The soft back rubbing didn't help, but the coughing soon subsided.

Junko took her hand away from her mouth. _'Damn it, it's already this bad...'_ She thought after looking at her bloodied hand. She looked up to see Fubuki with a worried expression on, kneeling beside her. She chuckled to herself after thinking that he only showed such emotions around Haku and herself.

"Don't worry, it's just a cold... a really bad cold."

That seemed to set Fubuki off, his eyes narrowed. He knew that a simple _cold_ couldn't do anything of this magnitude to someone. He started thinking of the possibilities _. 'Was she still injured from the attack? She must be, and if that was true it was possible that it got infected.'_ He came to a conclusion _._

"Junko..." he sighed sadly, "You're..." He stopped himself. It was hard to say, he didn't want to believe that it was true, but it was painfully obvious at this point. "You're dying... aren't you?"

"What are you talking abou–"

"Junko, I know you. You wouldn't lie unless you needed to hide something big." His words cut through to her like a knife and Junko stopped trying to convince him that she was fine. "Let me see the wound, it must have hurt to hide it all this time..."

Junko looked resistant, but eventually agreed after seeing the stubborn glint in his eyes. He's probably read some of his father's scrolls, she shouldn't lie to him anymore. He was a mature child, he deserved to know the truth.

They moved to the bathroom and Junko took her arms out of the sleeves of her kimono to review her abdomen. Fubuki blushed faintly and looked away, not having seen a woman's body before. He saw the wrappings she had around her breasts and sighed in relief. He slowly undid the bandages, around her torso, her wound now uncovered. She had a stab wound going through the right side of her abdomen, right above the hip. It had a small exit wound as if the sword didn't go completely through. The area was crusted over and inflamed.

Fubuki cringed at the state of the wound. It was clearly infected if you couldn't already tell by the inflamed cherry red flushed skin around it.

"You've had this since we were attacked, right?" He very gently touched the skin around it to see how tender the wound was, if it was as bad as it looked... She wouldn't have much time left.

Junko flinched and her breath hitched, his eyes narrowed. If the outer wound hurt that much, from such a light touch, he couldn't imagine how infected the internal organs were.

Junko was taken aback—Fubuki was so calm, cold even. She had never seen this side of him before.

"...Junko..." He said sadly, his voice shaky.

"I know... I don't have a lot of time left. I might not even make it to the next town..."

"How long is the trip there?"

She was wondering why he was asking these questions when he already knew she was a dead woman walking. "A days trip."

"Hmm, I can wrap the wound with my ice, then you can use your chakra to keep your fever down... though the wound would have to be tightly wrapped..." He thought, "Yes, it should last if you don't move abruptly."

Junko just watched him talking to himself.

"But it might not be enough..." Fubuki looked up to Junko, "I'd have to travel with you there to keep you stable."

"Fubuki... I'll go there myself. It's a long way to Kirigakure. You'll need all the time you need to get there."

"What's a side stop going to do? It'll just be an extra two days to add on." He argued, wanting to be by his mother figures side.

Junko got up from her spot, "No, we will go our separate ways." She said stubbornly.

"But!–"

"Fubuki, please. This is the last thing I want from you... I want you to focus on _your_ future. Not mine, but yours." She wanted him to go his own separate way. He had a bright future ahead of him, and if he went with her, she knew he would stay with Haku and not do what he truly wanted. "I will travel on my own with Haku."

Fubuki looked down, away from Junko's determined face. She knew she was going to die, yet she wouldn't waver. Her resolve was strong.

He wanted to be with her and make her happy. She was a second mother to him. After his mother and father died, he was surprised at how little emotion he felt—though the feeling of emptiness hit him hard after living alone for a period of time. He learnt his lesson and wanted to protect his loved ones, but Junko was stubborn. He doubted that he could convince her for him to go too. He gave in to her determination, and knew that he would regret it.

"W-would that make you happy?" His breath hitched, he was holding back tears that he hadn't realized were forming.

"Yes, it would Fubuki," She hugged him. Junko always thought Fubuki was a shrewd child. He was too mature for his age of eleven, so she tried to soften and break his shell.

She succeeded.

Fubuki let his pent up emotions out in silent tears. She smiled. This would be the first time she saw him cry, and also the last. He slowly stopped crying and let go of her. His eyes were red and starting to swell, he looked up to her, "Junko, I'll miss you."

"I will always watch over you two, but I'm not done yet. I still have to bring Haku to his new home."

Fubuki put new bandages on her, and froze the wound with half of his chakra. It was a small, thin patch of ice, but with all the chakra in it, it would hold for at least twenty four hours. He's done it enough to himself that he knew it wouldn't fail on her.

They left the room and grabbed their things. Fubuki had to make sure that she wasn't carrying too much, or the extra weight would open the wound again.

"Thank you Fubuki. This'll last the whole way."

"Haku!" Junko yelled, "It's time to leave!"

"Hey, if you yell it might open again!" Fubuki scolded Junko. She was being too careless.

Haku came down the stairs with a satchel holding his things. "..." He and Fubuki starred at each other for a moment. That's when Haku approached Fubuki and gave him a hug. Fubuki was pleasantly suprised, he thought that Haku was terrified of him.

"G-Good luck on being a shinobi."

Fubuki grinned and ruffled his hair, "Thanks Haku, I appreciate it." Haku ran behind Junko. He was still scared of Fubuki, but he was his cousin, and he loved him. "Be careful."

Haku nodded and turned to leave with his mother.

"Fubuki, take care of yourself." She smiled to him, and turned to go down the road.

"W-wait..." Haku mumbled.

"What is it Haku?" Junko blinked in surprise when he ran up to Fubuki.

"Here, t-this is for you." Haku held out his hand, gesturing Fubuki to do the same.

Fubuki looked confused but put out his hand. Haku put something in it—there was a necklace with a large snowflake and smaller ones beside it. Then there was a few loose beads and snowflake beads.

"Happy early birthday."

Fubuki blinked, shocked from the sudden gift, "Are... are these for me?"

Haku nodded, "I was going to give them to you on your birthday, but..." Haku fidgeted, nervous if he liked his gift. "They can store chakra in them." Fubuki was silently admiring the necklace and beads. "D-do you not like them?"

"Of course I like them, but I thought you didn't like me anymore... So I'm just surprised."

"I-I guess I was scared of you for a bit, but your my aniki!"

Fubuki couldn't help pulling him into a hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much Haku, I can't describe how much this means to me." Haku squirmed in the hug, but he just hugged harder.

Haku stopped squirming when he felt warm liquid on his neck. Tears. Fubuki was crying.

"F-Fubuki, are you hurting?"

He shook his head, "No, I'm just happy... Really happy." He sniffed, and let Haku go from his grip, "I just want to ask you something." Haku tilted his head, Fubuki smiled at the cute look Haku was giving him, "What are the other beads for?"

Haku blinked and gave him a look, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "It's for you to put on the string of your hair feathers."

Fubuki laughed and scratched his cheek, "I wouldn't have known if you didn't tell me." Then he looked to Junko who was smiling fondly at them. "I sorta forgot it was coming up, my birthday I mean. I'm glad you reminded me Haku."

"January twenty-fifth!" Haku said sticking his hand out, stretching out his fingers representing a five. Fubuki chuckled at his cute childishness.

"Sorry to break the happy atmosphere you two have going on, but we have to go." She said looking amused.

Haku ran back to Junko's side and waved with her as they turned to leave.

Fubuki waved back, his hand falling loosely to his side when they turned back around. "Till next time..." He mumbled out, staring at their backs until they were out of sight.

He sighed, he was now all alone. He would have to get used to the feeling again, but this was the path he had chosen. He loved to fight, and that's what he'll get to do as a shinobi.

"Hey mom, Fubuki-nii is gonna be a great ninja, I just know it!"

Junko chuckled softly, "Yes, I think so too," She smiled at her son. "But I thought you were scared of him."

"I was for a while... But he protected me as best he could! He was a little scary though..." He shivered, remembering the look Fubuki had in his eyes at the time. "I heard you two talking... and found out that Fubuki-nii wanted to be a ninja, so I wanted to give him something!"

"And that was the necklace and beads?"

"Yeah!" He nodded.

"I think that was a great gift." They smiled to each other before quieting down for the trip. She couldn't help but worry for Fubuki. The trip to Kirigakure was a long one and it was easy to get lost in the mist, but he was a strong child, she had to have faith in him.

Fubuki sneezed abruptly, "Owww that hurt like hell." He rubbed his throat and the bridge of his nose to soothe the pain before taking a deep breath in. "I need to be strong."

He double checked his bags. He had a scroll full of valuables from the village's houses along with another scroll full of tools and weapons. He could pawn those in towns he would pass through if he ran low on ryo. He took the money from the houses of the dead villagers—they had no use for it anymore.

He had another scroll with his clothes, which was mostly kimono, with bathing supply's and bandages. In total he had four scrolls; three medium ones in his bag, and one small one holding his all of his ryo in his kimono.

He wanted to go to his old house before traveling to Kiri to get the remaining scrolls from there.

Saying his final goodbye to his home, he turned and left it all behind.

They way to his old house was about a few days trip away. It was in a rural area with only one road to and from it. There was little chance of anyone still remembering him which was good in his books. Some people were freaked out by his snow white hair, aqua eyes, and clan tattoos on his face.

He had gotten them when he turned five. It was his father's clan's tradition, to give their children tribal tattoos when they came of age. Their tattoos had a secondary purpose, to hold and store medical chakra. That function only activated when they had the right amount of chakra control and medical knowledge to use. His were in his cheeks, shaped like long curved triangles. It could also be described as turquoise scratch marks. They were roughly the same colour of his eyes.

He would have to learn the set requirements from his father's scrolls to use them.

He was almost to his old hometown when he heard a snap. He whirred around to face the source of the noise. "Who's there? Show yourself!" He brought out a kunai.

"Woah, hold up little boy." A scruffy looking man came out of the bushes. "You scared the crap out'a me." He eyed the child that was wielding a kunai. He thought he was an older man at first glance with the white hair, but thought otherwise when he heard his voice. When he spun around he saw his face and thought he looked familiar.

Fubuki twirled the kunai around his fingers, "Who are you." He asked coolly, he had to keep his guard up, bandits were a common thing.

"I'm not someone you should be worried about. I was just taking a nap." As if to prove his point, he yawned. Though Fubuki thought otherwise, he looked shady. Shaggier more than anything with his unkempt messy shoulder length red hair, pointy goatee, and five o'clock shadow that he had going on.

"If that's true, then I'll be on my merry way." Fubuki said dully.

"Wait, what's a kid like you traveling by himself?"

"What's it to you?"

"Well, I'm a father of two kids." He scratched his head.

"And?"

He sighed, "Well I don't want a child like you traveling alone in times like these."

"Well I'm almost to my destination, so no need to worry." It wasn't a lie, it was just _one_ of his destinations.

"Then I'll join you." He knew he was going to his own village. There was only one path to go there and the kid was walking in that exact direction.

Fubuki glared at the man, trying to make him change his mind. It wasn't working as the man just smirked knowingly at him. He sighed, "Fine, do as you please. But if you do anything to me I won't hesitate to kill you."

The man chuckled, "I'd like to see you try." He blinked when his taunt went ignored and the kid just started walking again.

Ten minutes went by in silence, and the man couldn't stand it any longer.

"So kid, what's your name?"

Fubuki glanced back to him, "It's rude not to introduce yourself first, you know."

"Fine, fine, I'm Daichi Uzumaki."

"Fubuki Tatsumaki." He didn't want to use his other last name for safety purposes.

"What!?" Daichi halted in his tracks, finally putting the pieces together; the white hair, the tattoos on his face, the aqua eyes, "You're Kazehaya's child?"

Fubuki blinked, surprised, "You knew my father?"

"Knew him? I was his best friend and best man! We were rivals on the same Genin team."

"You don't look like a shinobi."

"I'm retired." It looked like Fubuki was going to say something, but Daichi stopped him, "And before you say anything, I'm only twenty-seven." He said, looking unamused.

"Was it an injury?" Fubuki asked warily, hoping it wasn't a touchy subject.

"Poison," Daichi corrected, "Damaged my chakra system badly enough to render me unable to use ninjutsu."

"Damn, that sucks. I'm guessing it did nervous system damage also?"

"How'd ya' know?"

"Just a hunch. Usually there's a side effect or multiple effects to poison." He should know, in one of his dreams he almost died from a poisonous smoke bomb. He was one of the few lucky people who already had their gas masks on.

Daichi chuckled, "Yeah… I can't really feel pain. As expected from a Tatsumaki and their medical prowess."

Fubuki laughed at the last comment, but stopped when he saw the town ahead. "We're coming up to the town."

Daichi already knew where they were going and absently thought that the kid was almost an exact replica of his father, save for the eyes. His eye shape and nose were all his mother, his eye colour was his fathers.

When they arrived, they stopped and hid, noticing a group of bandits. They had all the villagers surrounded and tied up in ropes.

Daichi stood there, astonished; he saw his wife and children there in the middle of the group. "A-Atsuya!"

Fubuki thought for a moment, would he be able to take them all out? Yes, just barely, but he knew he would get injured. There were innocent people, he needed to do something.

"Daichi, I could stop them."

"What? You're only a child! You can't put yourself in danger-" he held Fubuki's shoulders intending on stopping the idea, but the look on his face worried him. What could have Fubuki been through to make him like this at such a young age? What was he, eleven, twelve?

"They haven't noticed us yet, you go hide. I'll get them to follow me, or I'll take them out."

"No, I can't let a child take on all those men!"

Something in Fubuki snapped and anger welded up inside him. "Just because I'm a child, it doesn't mean I'm weak." He glared at Daichi, "I may be small, but you're in no shape to fight, you would only be a hindrance. You want your wife to be saved right?" Daichi hesitated but nodded, "Then let me handle this!" Fubuki almost yelled, but he held back to keep their position behind some foliage secret.

Daichi sighed, he couldn't think of anything better to do than go along with Fubuki's plan. "Okay, fine. But if _anything_ goes wrong, I'm going out there."

Fubuki left his bag back with Daichi and had kept his two kunai in his kimono. He felt exhilarated, he was excited to fight. He also wanted to help the village out, it was his mothers and fathers village, his birthplace, and he felt he should protect it.

He counted the bandits numbers and scoffed. There was about half the amount from his village, eighteen thugs. They all had weaponry, swords and kunai. Trying to find the man in charge, he surveyed them and finally found him. He was the largest man with the axe. He was dark skinned and had many scars, one went diagonally across his face. He had long black hair in dreads pulled into an elastic and a full on beard. Well, he sure looked the part.

Fubuki had to be grateful for his memories of his previous life, otherwise he wouldn't have the knowledge or experience to be able to take stronger thugs like these guys out. He looked around to see if he could take any out secretly. No, he couldn't. They were all grouped in the middle surrounding the women and children—the men having given up sitting in the middle along with them.

He would have to take the frontal approach.

Fubuki walked to the clearing, the middle of the town, and caught the attention of the bandits.

The leader looked to him, then to his subordinates, "You _idiots_ , you left a child! Get him!"

"Yes boss!"

Some bandits came up to him and tried to grab him, "Don't _touch_ me," Fubuki said darkly, taking his kunai out slashing the man's stomach.

"H-he killed him!"

The leader yelled, "I don't care about capturing him! Just kill that kid!" He probably noticed the malice in his eyes, and ordered his minions to kill. No normal kid could kill like that.

Half of the bandits ran after him, Fubuki ran off, bringing them to a secluded area. An alleyway. He didn't want the adults and children to witness the bloodshed.

"Aww, little guy's in a pinch now, huh?"

"That's what _you_ think," and one by one they went down.

"Those guys were hopelessly weak," He dusted his hands and went back to approach the rest of the bandits.

"Your cronies didn't put up much of a fight." He taunted the leader. "Would you put up a more entertaining one?" He grinned sadistically, his eyes shadowed by his bangs.

"Heh, that kids no pushover." Daichi mumbled as he watched from his hiding place.

The bandit's leader growled as he took out an axe from its holster on his back. "You're gonna die, brat."

All of them charged him at once except for the leader. Fubuki had trouble with this wave of bandits; they were much more skilled than the previous group.

Five minutes later of give and take with more injuries than he would have liked, he only killed four of the remaining nine.

"Damn it, I'll have to use it." He put both of his kunai back in his kimono and started doing hand signs. It took longer than it should have, since he had to keep dodging the attacks while he was surrounded. After getting multiple cuts, and bruises, he finished the hand signs. "Freeze Frame," he whispered. The air turned ice cold around him and the surrounding bandits became encased in ice. Fubuki was breathing heavily from the exertion of the technique. He clenched his fists in pain, his wound opened again. He cursed, and it was almost done healing too. At least it wouldn't have opened a lot, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell. He only had a little chakra left, if he used it he would faint from chakra exhaustion.

The villagers watching the fight gasped, and looked more terrified than before.

"Oh-ho, so you're a part of the Yuki clan, eh? You're the perfect prey. Everyone wants you kekkei genkai users dead anyways." The leader bandit chuckled darkly.

"As long as you leave them alone, I'll give you a fight." Fubuki panted out. Then he remembered the gift from Haku, they may only have a scarce amount of chakra in them, but it would do. He would have to refill them afterwards.

He debated on either making senbon, or freezing his wound. He chose and made some senbon, and took out his kunai. Throwing a single senbon towards the axe wielding bandit, he let it pierce his shoulder.

"That little thing isn't going to do anything kid." He swung his axe down and Fubuki barely dodged, rocks went flying from the impact. Fubuki threw another senbon, almost missing, and continued evading. If the man wasn't so arrogant and didn't _let_ the senbon hit him, he would have seen how those ice weapons were affecting him.

Fubuki eventually ran out of senbon, and he couldn't make any more. If he had tried to make more, he would have run out of chakra. The man started to slow down when the senbon started to slowly freeze the area around them.

They came closer to the villagers and the axe came down, about to hit Fubuki. He had to choose what to do, dodge and let the villagers get hurt, or take a chance and see if he could block the axe.

Fubuki chose option two. He took both his kunai and crossed them in an 'X' to block it. The force of impact made him cough up blood, but he stood strong. The man put more pressure onto Fubuki's block. He could see him shaking.

"Why bother helping them, they're going to betray you anyways. You could let them die, and live another day."

"Because I'm not a heartless _bastard_ like you. I can't leave innocent people to die, but people like you, _deserve_ to be killed!" Fubuki was at his limit, he knew he would falter and the axe would go through his guard.

"You talk big, but you're alone. No one is going to help y–" he was cut off by a sword slashing its way into his neck, right through the jugular. The sick sound of blood gurgling in his throat was heard as he fell to the ground, dead.

Fubuki gasped for air, falling to his knees, the strain of holding that axe up taking its toll. He looked up to see Daichi breathing heavily. "D-Daichi... thank you." He took the moment of silence to grab a hold of himself.

"Daichi! Get away from him! It'll kill you!" A woman screamed from the crowd of tied up people.

Fubuki's face darkened, hurt by the accusation. He looked blankly at them, then to Daichi. "I've done what I could. You take it from here. I'm obviously not wanted here." He slowly got up from the ground, running on an empty tank.

"Wait, Fubuki, you saved my village, I have to repay you somehow."

"Repay him? Pfft, what are you thinking Daichi?" A man scoffed.

"But he saved us daddy!" The child of the man spoke up. He was injured, along with some other villagers.

Fubuki knelt down beside the child, ignoring his father's yells of protest, "You're injured... Damn, I'm sorry I didn't make it in time."

He stood up, almost stumbling, and surveyed the crowd; some of them had deep cuts, mostly the women and children. "Daichi, help me untie them." He complied. They did the children first, then the women and lastly the men. Daichi hugged his children and wife.

"You've untied us, now get out of our village!"

"Not yet," He wanted to rest, but he needed to finish what he started. He himself didn't even know what was driving him to help them. "There are injured people-" Fubuki was interrupted by a man.

"We don't care! Leave!" A man yelled, holding his wife in his arms.

Fubuki raised his voice, anger fueling him for the time being. "The injured need to be taken care of, some people have deep enough cuts that could kill by blood loss or infection!" He flashed back to Junko and Haku, but pushed the thoughts away, "I don't care if you _hate_ me or want me _dead_ , I won't let anyone die if I _know_ I could help them. Stop being so _stubborn_ before your wife dies!"

"Fubuki..." Daichi spoke up, getting angry at his friends and family. He sided with Fubuki's logic. "Fubuki saved us, and we should be grateful for his help. He could have left us to die, but he chose not to. Yes, he has a kekkei genkai, but that doesn't mean he's a bad kid!"

The people couldn't help but to calm down and accept the fact. The fact that an ice user, a _kekkeigenkai_ user, saved them from what could have been much worse without him.

Fubuki sighed and smiled at Daichi, "Thanks for doing that Daichi, I wouldn't have been able to do it without you."

"No problamo kiddo." He ruffled Fubuki's hair but stopped when he realized it had blood in it. He blinked, just then he noticed how beaten he was. He looked pale and had deep cuts on his body. It looked like he already had bandages on beforehand. _Was he injured even before fought? What a reckless decision!_

"Now..." Fubuki panted out, losing the energy he just had, "I know you guys don't trust me, but frankly some of you have serious injuries and I'm surprised a few haven't died yet. So just let me help you and let me finish my business here, and I'll _never_ come back again." Fubuki started feeling dizzy but pushed it aside. He didn't notice his blood dripping down onto the snow below him.

Murmuring went throughout the crowd before they reluctantly agreed.

"Daichi, where's a place that I could help patch them up?" The dizziness came back multiple times stronger. Fubuki reeled back and darkness started surrounding his vision. He stumbled and fell into Daichi.

"Fubuki? Fubuki! Get a hold of yourself!" Daichi picked him up, and cursed, he had a fever. Then he felt warm liquid soak into his clothes. _Blood_. Fubuki's blood.

Fubuki had never felt so small; he couldn't remember the last time he was held. It made him remember just how small he was. "D-Daichi, I need to treat... them..." He fainted, barely finishing his sentence.

"Fuck!" Daichi glared at his fellow townspeople, taking the leading role. "The injured, follow me to the clinic. I need some others to wrap their injuries. I'll take care of Fubuki, I don't trust _any_ of you right now." He all but ordered. "Wanting to murder a child, fucking _ridiculous,_ " Daichi cursed under his breath, loud enough for people to hear him.


	4. Chapter 4

After blowing his top on the villagers, Daichi stormed off to the clinic, Fubuki in tow. The child in his arms was gravely injured and needed his wounds treated immediately. The blood was still slowly draining out of the kid and the colour was draining from his skin. He was getting even paler by the minute.

Daichi's fellow townspeople were honestly scared, terrified even, they were _shocked_. The tone, the sheer _anger,_ the pure _rage_ in his voice—he even cursed and he would _never_ use foul language. They hadn't seen Daichi act like that before. What had set him off?

"I-I think Daichi is right, that child helped us, he _saved_ us from those bandits, we should be kind to him." A man said and some others nodded along, agreeing with him. The children started cheering, agreeing with the man.

"Yeah, he was all like _swoosh_ and he blocked that huge axe like _bam_ from hitting Karui! Hahahaha!" The child ran around, grinning ear to ear circling his friend Karui, who just looked annoyed at his friends sudden bout of energy.

"What are you talking about? He's going to betray us, I just know it! He's just like those _Kaguya_." A man yelled, spitting the clan name out of his mouth. Obviously against letting a _kekkei_ _genkai_ user stay in their village, even if temporarily.

" _No_ ," Atsuya spoke up, coming out from the crowd, "I know my husband. Daichi knows the child's name, he must have met him on the way back here from traveling. He's a good judge of character." She felt anger welding up inside of her, "Who do you think you are, judging him just because he has a _bloodline_ before you even _know_ him." Atsuya argued and left, headed to the clinic to help out, ignoring the ignorant yells of protest behind her.

The people who were on her side left along with her, leaving a quarter of them left. It seems as the white haired child's and her husband's words got through to them. Atsuya smiled, it was time for a change in the land of water.

Entering the clinics building, she saw her husband issuing orders to the people helping out, the people who were actually on his side and agreed with him. She couldn't help but smile. He hadn't been a shinobi for nothing, he was a natural leader.

She walked around the working people and went behind Daichi who was just finishing a talk with someone. "Daichi, dear, I'm going to help."

The sudden voice of his wife surprised him, "Atsuya!" Daichi spun around and engulfed her in a hug. "I'm so sorry, I just got so... so _angry_ and I forgot to check if you were okay and overlooked-"

"Shh, it's okay, I understand. They were unreasonable for acting like that to..." She trailed off.

"His name is Fubuki, Fubuki Tatsumaki."

She realization dawned upon her looked surprised, no wonder why they looked so much alike. "Your friend's child?"

Daichi nodded, "He's a strong kid for sure." He looked down to Fubuki with a smile. He was lying down on a bed with a cooling pack on his head. Daichi hadn't gotten around to wrapping his wounds yet, he was busy issuing orders to the others. "After his parents died... He just disappeared without a trace."

"We wanted to take him in too..." Atsuya sighed and crossed her arms, looking down to the sleeping child that her husband saved. He was badly injured; they could tell from first glance that he went through a lot to protect them.

"I'll need you to help me with Fubuki, he's badly hurt."

Daichi held him upright carefully while Atsuya slowly undid the snow haired child's kimono. Fubuki already had bandages on beforehand, but they were cut up in places and were covered in both old and new blood. They slowly took the bandages off and Daichi gasped. Fubuki's back wounds were now in full view.

Atsuya looked at Fubuki's back. She paled and started to shake, "What the hell happened to him, for him to be hurt like this."

"I don't know..." Daichi clenched his fists, "I don't know, but we need to treat him, and _fast_." If they didn't, the pain and the fever would clash and make his condition several times worse than it already was. A high chance of death followed if that happened.

They cleaned his wounds, giving him a sponge bath, rewrapped his torso and waited. After treating the major wounds Daichi went to change his arm wound.

"What in the world would leave a wound like this?" He asked himself, it was from the farming hoe Fubuki couldn't dodge.

Finally done wrapping his wounds, they stayed in close proximity to Fubuki. They had to keep a constant eye on him as his fever could get worse at any second.

Fubuki's fever finally broke an hour later and now they just had to wait for him to wake up. Fubuki's rich skin was starting to return to its normal colour, he started to shift in his sleep, the occasional noise signaling a dream.

Suddenly Fubuki's eyes snapped open, darting around the room. He started panicking,eyes widened, _Junko! Haku!_ He realized where he was, slowly remembering what happened. He took a deep breath in, depressed. That's when he noticed the new bandages.

"Oh thank goodness, you're awake."

Fubuki's eyes widened and shot to the women that was right beside him, she had mid-length brown hair and green eyes. Atsuya got up from the chair she was on and fetched him a glass of water. She placed it on the side table and helped Fubuki sit up.

"Here, you must be thirsty." She handed him the glass of liquid.

He downed the glass, his throat felt dry and he tried to talk earlier but couldn't. "Thank you. You're Atsuya, correct?"

"Yes, how'd you know?"

"I heard your name from Daichi. Before... Well... you know what happened." She nodded, understanding what he was referring to. "So, how long have I been asleep? Because I remember saying that I'd leave after I've done what I need to do."

Atsuya frowned, he shouldn't care what they want. "A day, but you still need more rest."

Fubuki swung his legs off the edge of the bed he was on, "I appreciate your worry, but I need to get moving." He knew he needed to recover, but he couldn't stay there, he would get killed if he didn't leave.

Someone cleared their throat, "Now where do you think _you're_ going, mister."

Fubuki looked to the doorway to see Daichi.

"I've intruded in your home and your village. I'm not wanted here, I need to finish my business and leave." Fubuki said firmly.

"Yes some villagers are scared of you, but others came around and overcame their fears to see you as a good person, but you must also stay until you are fully healed."

Fubuki weighed out his options. He could try to escape and leave without getting the stuff from his old house and travel while being badly injured, _or_ he could stay and recover and get his stuff when he left. He sighed, one option was clearly much more logical than the other. "Fine, it's not like I can escape while I'm this injured anyways."

Daichi smiled, feeling victorious. "Now, a few people want to talk to you." He said, grinning.

Fubuki was confused, Daichi was smiling when the villagers hated him and wanted to 'talk' to him. He didn't believe what he said earlier about them trusting him. He just couldn't. The villagers clearly got their point across after he helped them, though Daichi looked truthful.

"Come on, they're outside."

Fubuki stared at him cautiously before giving in to his grin. He sighed, " _Fine_ , though _your_ responsible if they try to attack me," he heard a chuckle from Daichi while they were going down the stairs. He honestly had no idea what was going through his mind. For all he knew this could be an ambush.

When Daichi opened the door he didn't expect this. Most of the people from the village were gathered, the children too. Fubuki was pleasantly surprised when some children ran up to him.

"Mister, mister! You're so _cool_!"

Fubuki chuckled, "I see what you did there." The kid looked confused, "...the pun..." Still no reaction. He sighed, it seemed that he ruined the atmosphere trying to explain it, "Kiddo I'm twelve, I'm a kid just like you."

"But your hair-"

" _Yes_ I know, it's white and it makes me look old." He ruffled the kids hair, "So there must be a reason you all gathered here." He stiffened and went into a defensive stance, "Don't tell me you want to get rid of m-"

"No, no, no, no. We're here to _thank_ you."

Fubuki blinked, once, twice, thrice, and then the words set in. " _What_...?"

"You and Daichi's words changed our opinion of you. You could have left us for dead, but you fought for us, you _saved_ us, and for that we thank you. You can stay for as long as you need."

"Really?" The group nodded. He was filled with relief and felt himself relax. "Thank you." He yawned and his eyes started to fall, he was starting to feel sleepy again.

"Now now, move along. The little guy needs to rest." Daichi came in, shooing them away before helping Fubuki back to the bed. He needed to rest and make _sure_ that his wounds were indeed healed. He would put Fubuki through the wringer if he left while still injured.

"I'm not... Little..." Fubuki mumbled as he drifted to sleep.

Daichi pet his head gently, sadness in his eyes. "Yes you are." _You've just grown up too fast. Live your childhood like a child... You deserve it._

"I'll look over him for now, hun." They shared an embrace.

"Thanks, I have to go." He pecked her lips. Daichi had to get things in line and he trusted his beloved wife.

His wife Atsuya used to be a medic ninja, so she used her chakra to keep him asleep, then every once and a while she would use the mystical palm technique to speed up the healing. With the use of the mystical palm technique, he was healed in less than a week. Needless to say, Fubuki was happy that he couldn't reopen his wounds anymore. That was hella painful.

Once fully recovered, Fubuki gathered his things and left in the middle of the night, leaving a note for Daichi and Atsuya. He made sure to check up on them before leaving.

He went to his old house, it was boarded up and worn down, but the insides weren't damaged that badly. After finding an opening in a window, he took a board off so he could squeeze through the crack. He went down into his father's study in the basement and found the secret door behind the book case. He couldn't get it open. There was a key or something that was needed.

"Great, I came here for nothing..." He sighed.

Not being able to get the secret room's door open, he settled for the basic jutsu scrolls on the shelves in the study. One had the basic clone, another had kawamiri, and there was also the henge along with a few others. There was even a basic medical scroll and a genjutsu scroll too. He also took a few wind jutsu's in his bag.

His bag was stuffed to the brim with the knowledge. Though that would be bad to travel with, and also heavy, it would attract bandits and thieves. Could he seal other scrolls into a storage scroll? He didn't see why not, so he rummaged around the room and found a few storage scrolls hidden around the house. Two were under the master bedrooms bed, and two were in the closet. He was lucky to find that many of them. So he sealed the scrolls into the scroll.

Could he seal a scroll into a scroll that already had scrolls in it? Wow, scroll-ception much.

After that confusing realization, he left with the books and scrolls he collected. Sealing the scrolls and books into storage scrolls.

Leaving his old house, he closed the window. After looking over the village once he smiled sadly and ran off into the forest in the direction of Kirigakure, the light of the moon guiding him.

Daichi woke up from an unsettling feeling. Panicking, he ran up to the guest room only to find Fubuki gone, the bed made as if he wasn't there in the first place. _Crap._

On the side table he saw a white sheet of paper; it stood out from the moonlight hitting the nightstand. Picking up the note it read,

 _Dear Daichi and Atsuya,_

 _If you are reading this then I have already gone. Now, just because I left without telling you it doesn't mean that I'm not grateful to you two. In fact, I feel indebted to you two. It's just that I was getting too comfortable with everyone and if I stayed any longer, I wouldn't want to leave. But I have a goal, and I'm going to fulfill that goal._

 _I'm going to be a ninja and be the best I can be._

 _I'll try to visit the village when I can, I promise I'll visit. Until then, I hope you two stay well._

 _Fubuki._

By the time Daichi finished the letter, some of it was illegible to read, the wet marks on it making it almost impossible to recognize some of the words. Tears. He had to admit that he had grown attached to the kid, but he had his own goals, and he was his own person.

Daichi looked out of the window to see the sun rising. He could only hope that Fubuki would keep his promise of visiting in the future.

 _No, Fubuki_ better _stay well and uphold that promise, or I'll hunt him down and drag him back._

In the forest, Fubuki sneezed abruptly. "Damn, if that saying is really true Daichi must have found my letter." _I better run faster._

Fubuki had been making good progress so far, though he had been running into wild animals so he took to the trees. The worst of the worst was that he almost stepped on a crocodile. Turns out there was a short cut from the village through the forest to the port. He would have to take a boat to the main land and travel through forests to get to Kiri according to the map he found.

The travels on the boats took about a week before getting to the main island. It was the center of Water Country. After getting lost in the fog on _multiple_ occasions, he finally found the hidden village. No wonder they were called _hidden villages_ , Kirigakure was constantly covered in a thick mist and it took him about a _week_ of constant traveling to find the friggen place. So about two weeks of traveling.

Approaching the gates, his stomach was wrenching around, tossing and turning. He was nervous. Nervous of the fact that they might somehow find out that he had a kekkei genkai even though they had no proof, no _solid_ evidence. But he pushed the feeling away, not wanting the ninja to notice his nervousness from his body language.

Once near the gate the guards noticed him and stiffened, "State your business."

"I traveled here in aspiration that I could enroll in the ninja academy to be a shinobi of the mist."

One guard made a sign, signaling a ninja to come over. "Escort him to the Mizukage."

"Hai." The ninja said. He had blue hair styled into a spike and an eyepatch. The ninja glanced at the child in front of him, analyzing him. Fubuki took that as a sign to follow the ninja.

The ninja walked at a rather slow pace, probably trying to set a pace that Fubuki could walk at. They walked through the streets of the village and people were giving him weird looks, his hair apparently confusing them. By the looks he was getting they most likely thought that he was an old geezer.

"What's your name kid?"

Fubuki looked up to the man. The question came out of nowhere. He answered despite the awkward atmosphere. "Fubuki, Sir."

"Hmm." He seemed to be in thought. "How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"Do you have any experience in combat?"

Fubuki wanted to say no to keep him from being suspicious, but lying about it wouldn't do him and good. He was beside an experienced ninja who would be able to see through his feeble attempt of a lie.

"...Yes."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Village uproar, civil war, riot whatever you could call it. Just had to protect myself and my family... Then there were also bandits in towns I had to travel through..." Fubuki blinked and wondered why he was giving out all of his info to someone that would regard it as useless information later on. "Why are you interrogating me before we get to the Mizukage's tower? I'm sure he would get someone to interrogate me again anyways."

The man just scoffed and turned around a corner and the tower came into view. Man it was tall. Everything in Mizugakure was tall.

Going through hallways and up multiple staircases, they finally reached the main office of the Mizukage. The symbol of water was above the door to give it away for anybody who didn't know where their Kage resided.

The ninja knocked, "You have a visitor Yagura-sama."

"Come in," the voice called. It sounded like a younger man, probably around the age of twenty.

Entering into the large room, Fubuki straightened his posture and bowed. The ninja who escorted him did the same but not as formal as Fubuki's bow. His army side was emerging; a man of high authority was in front of him.

Rising from his bow, he locked eyes with the Mizukage, or Yagura from what he heard from the man beside him.

"Yagura-sama, this child traveled here to enroll in the ninja academy."

"He is correct Mizukage-sama. I have come here in hopes of becoming a shinobi, traveling from my hometown to enroll in the academy."

"And what is your name child."

"Fubuki Tatsumaki, age twelve." Fubuki narrowed his eyes and gave a smirk, some of his sharp teeth showing, "I'm _sure_ you won't be disappointed."

That line influenced the Mizukage to hurl a kunai at him to test his claim, though it was at roughly high-Genin to low-Chunin speeds.

He was caught off guard from the sudden hostility from the Kage, but his arm shot out on reflex and he grabbed the kunai mere centimeters from his eye. He blinked and mentally sighed in relief, glad that he had noticed that before it was too late. He started twirling it around his fingers skillfully, and placed it on the ground in front of himself. Then he kicked it, sending it sliding back to the Mizukage's desk with a few metallic clangs along the way. He didn't want to look like he was going to attack, would he now?

"... Did I say something wrong, Sir?"

"No. I'll have you put in the academy. However, housing is your own problem."

"Yes, I understand. Thank you Mizukage-sama." Fubuki bowed. "Then I shall take my leave." He turned and left the room, closing the doors behind him, the escort of his followed. He took a moment to relax his body.

"You still going to follow me, Escort-san?"

"Yes, it seems as though I need to watch you."

"Well, I guess it's better knowing ." Fubuki scoffed, "Rather know you have a stalker than not know, right?"

He exited the building and went down the main street that they went down earlier.

"You wouldn't know where any armory shops or clothing stores would be would you?" He obviously knew that the man did since he lived there and was hoaxing an answer from him.

"Yes, just follow me."

And that he did. Though on the way there he looked around and recorded the layout and stores of the village. He noticed an Inn that he could stay at until he could find an apartment, and a few vendors.

Then they came along the armory store.

"Thank you, now I'll be back out in a bit, unless you're coming in."

Entering the store, he saw that there were loads of weapons around, he eventually found the main desk after skimming through the merchandise.

"Excuse me, would I be able to pawn weapons here?"

"Hmm, yes but, why would you need to know that, little boy?"

Fubuki deadpanned, he was getting sick of being called 'little boy' or 'kid'. "I have weapons that I don't need." He took the scroll that was full of weapons out and took a step back. He had picked up the large axe from the bandit boss along with the swords they used. He unsealed the scroll and the mass of weapons poofed into existence. They were just in a huge pile.

The shop owner whistled, "Where'd ya get all these?"

"Bandits," was all he said as he bent down and organized the weapons. There were only axes, swords and spears. He kept the kunai and a staff.

The escort looked over the weapons. They were in good quality and in such an abundance, it would easily go for 9'000 ryo.

"I'll give you five-thousand ryo for all of this." The man said with a sinister smile.

Fubuki eyed the man before glancing to his escort, he looked surprised. Fubuki narrowed his eyes, and glared at him, "Are you ripping me off, old man?"

The man started sweating, "Uhh, w-well I'll give you seven for it."

" _Hmm?_ " Fubuki let some more killing intent leak. That was obliviously not the right price. The shop owner was a bad swindler.

"N-nine-t-thousand!"

Fubuki lightened the atmosphere and smiled, "Thanks, nice doing business with you."

Getting the money from the man he now had a total of around 30'000 ryo. He took the money from the dead villagers and bandits too, so it added up. Now he needed clothes since he only had the one kimono he wore.

Walking down the Main Street he found a shinobi clothing store. Entering the building, he was greeted by an employee. He dipped his head in a slight bow and looked around.

"Oh, Ao, what are you doing here?" A ninja asked.

Fubuki looked up from his browsing, _So Ao is his name,_ then he looked to the man who asked the question. The guy had blue skin with gills and white eyes of a type of fish he couldn't remember the name of.

"Just escorting someone."

That's when Fubuki laughed. "Pfft, the Mizukage just wants you to keep tabs on me."

The man blinked, he thought that he was an old man. "Heh, who's the kid?"

"Just want to be a ninja and join the academy. Though he thinks I'm a threat."

"What's your name?"

"It's rude to not introduce yourself first Mister." Fubuki really wanted to call him Sushi but chose not to on a gut feeling. It was probably a wise choice.

He laughed, showing the same pointed teeth as Fubuki did, "The names Kisame, kiddo."

"Fubuki Tatsumaki," Fubuki glared, he was sick of being called a kid, or any other synonym of it. "...And _don't_ call me kid." It was pissing him off—he let out some killing intent as a warning. Then he walked off, needing to blow off some steam.

"Well, he's lively." Kisame's eyes followed Fubuki as he walked away from them.

"No kidding, he was instigating the Mizukage earlier."

" _Really_?" Disbelief was heavy in Kisame's tone.

"Yeah, Yagura-sama threw a kunai at him, though he caught it right before it impaled his eye."

"Huh."

During their conversation Kisame absently thought that they were similar in a way. Other than the pointed teeth they shared.

After walking away from his source of anger, Fubuki had calmed down while finding the clothes he would need. He found a few light blue, black, and white tank tops for the summer, along with a few pairs of black pants along with some white ones. He got some light and dark blue leg warmers and an overly large white scarf. After the ninja clothes, he wanted to get some clothes that he would wear on his days off, and to the academy. For the academy, he got a long white trench coat with a black shirt and black pants. For normal wear he got a white and blue kimono. He also got some large baggy shirts and shorts for pajamas.

Bringing the clothes to the register, he paid and sealed the clothes into a scroll. The cost had been 1000 ryo for all the clothes, some clothes had been on discount so he was happy. He excited the store, not bothering to call for Ao as he probably already noticed his leaving. Someone else joined him.

Kisame followed with Ao just for shits and giggles. The kid had struck his interest.

Moving on he got some food from a street vendor. Some beef buns and taiyaki, he had never had them before and wanted to try them. He didn't like the buns, but ate them anyways since that would be a waste of food, it had a weird texture, it was moist and buns shouldn't taste sweet like that. Though he really liked the taiyaki, it was weird since it was fish shaped, but it was firmer than the bun and it had read bean filling inside.

He noticed Ao and Kisame looking at him. His once happy features hardened into a blank slate, though his eyes showed a mischievous glint in them. "...What? If you want some buy it yourself." He wasn't _that_ generous.

Happy with the taiyaki, he soon found an inn. After shutting the door in his stalkers faces, he took a shower; he had traveled all this time without an actual shower and he desperately wanted one. Washing away the dirt and grime, his hair was back to its pure white, clean colour. Once done, he meditated while slowly using his chakra until he barely had any left. It would help in making his chakra reserves much larger in the long run. He got under the covers, his mind contemplating life. His mind wandered to his family.

Haku and Junko.

He could only wish that they would be able to hear him.

 _Junko, I know you must have died. You were in no condition to live, you endured so much pain just for us... You... You were a mother to me, I loved you. I_ still _do, and I will_ never _forget the memories, the things you have done for Haku and I. I know you would have left Haku in good hands. I_ will _become a strong shinobi and show_ everyone _that not all people with a kekkei genkai are bad. So just, just watch over him okay?_ Please _... I don't care if you're not going to watch over me in turn to look after him._ He prayed to the heavens even though he didn't fully believe in God, but he still hoped that his thoughts would reach her. _I will always love you._ As he dosed off, a tear streaked his cheek.

The room grew thick with a white veil mist. The mist condensed into a glowing shape of a woman. She adorned a sad smile. _I will,_ she graced her hands on his cheek, a light warmth, she wiped the tears away. A small smile, he could feel that she was there. _You will be a talented shinobi, I know it._ She kissed her nephews forehead and vanished, the white mist dispersing. The phantom words of " _You were a son to me_ ," silently echoed throughout the hotel room.

Tears streamed down Fubuki's face, he felt her presence leaving him. He reached out, as if to grasp onto her spirit.

"Jun...ko..."


	5. Chapter 5

Waking up, Fubuki couldn't help but wonder why his face felt stiff. Going to the washroom, he saw that it was from his tears, the dry tracks were prominent and visible. He traced a finger down one of the salt tracks.

"I didn't cry... did I?" He murmured as he washed his face, the traces of tears washing away with the water. Blinded by the soap, he felt around for a hair brush to tame his nest of hair. He had terrible bed head—it was almost as if an animal burrowed in there. He decided to have a cold shower since it would help wake him up, after a nights rest on an uncomfortable mattress. He would have to get an apartment or a small house. Fubuki couldn't live in a hotel forever. He wondered if there were any secluded spots with few people. It would be easier to train his ice release that way.

After brushing his teeth he heard a knock at the door. He padded out of the bathroom to the front door. He went on his toes to try and see who was on the other side, but couldn't reach. Since he wasn't tall enough to look through the peep hole, he put the chain lock on and opened the door to be cautious.

It was Ao.

"Oh, Ao-san, what do you need?" Fubuki unlocked the door and opened it.

"The Mizukage has directed me to bring you to the academy. You will be starting today."

"Well that was sooner than I thought it would be." The blandness in his voice was overwritten with a sigh. "I'll need to get some notebooks and utensils on the way there then."

"I'll show you the directions there."

"Thank you. I'll need to change first though." Ao entered the room as Fubuki was shutting the door. Fubuki turned around, hearing a foot step. "You know... I'm not going to high tail it out of here." Getting no response he sighed.

Fubuki disregarded the adult male shinobi and went to do his own thing. He went to change into his kimono, but paused mid-way when he felt the sensation of being stared at.

He looked back to Ao who had a mixture of shock and sadness in his facial expression. Fubuki quickly pulled the kimono over his back, as the large scar on his back was surely what evoked those emotions from the stoic man. Not a second later Ao had gone back to his neutral facial expression.

"How did you get those scars?" Ao asked quietly. He was asking out of his own curiosity, it wasn't being asked to be reported. He just couldn't fathom how a child, no younger than twelve, had gone through so much pain.

Fubuki was silent for a few moments, contemplating on whether he should tell him or not. He decided that he would, but not without changing it. The best lies had truth to them. "My village was attacked..." His hand moved over to his scars. "When that happened I was in the outskirts of town and when I returned... There was chaos. I had managed to save my family but not without a price."

There was a long silence as Fubuki broke away from the intense stare he was receiving. He went back to getting his stuff together. He packed extra clothes, he still had to get used to the new clothes he bought so he would rather wear something he was comfortable with on the first day of school. He packed a black tank and white pants along with a pair of ninja shoes he still had to wear in; he also grabbed his white trench coat for coverage. Even though he was immune to cold temperatures he wanted to cover his skin. He put his feathers in his hair with the beads from Haku and wore the snowflake necklace. Once Fubuki was done he grabbed his satchel and threw it over his shoulder as he closed and made sure that the door locked behind him.

Ao followed him silently, wondering how Fubuki could be so collected.

Leaving the run down inn, he paid the front desk and informed that that he would be staying another night. The lady at the desk wrote the information down and bid him a good day.

"Thanks for waiting Ao-san." They stepped out of the motel and entered the misty streets. Fubuki loved the mist, it was always cool in the time of year it was. The ground was white in a fresh blanket of snow from the previous night, though it was now patted down by the traffic in the streets.

Walking through the streets, Fubuki noticed a store, it just barely caught his eye in the fog, he could somewhat make out the kanji and read the sign. It looked like it was a store that catered to people specializing in seals and code. It would surely hold basic notebooks and utensils for newbies that were just starting out, even though he wouldn't be using them for those purposes.

"Ao-san, may I buy some things from that store?"

Ao nodded, "Yes, but don't take too long. Otherwise you'll be late."

"Okay, thanks." Fubuki ran into the shop and bought a few notebooks and pencils, even a few scrolls so he could document the jutsu he made. He exited the store, though not before thanking the woman at the register, she recommended him to buy a deal they had, buy two get two free notebooks.

Meeting back up with Ao, they continued their walk to the ninja academy. A few streets later they turned a corner to go down a somewhat secluded road to only come across the ninja academy's outer wall. When they were close enough to see it without the fog hindering their sight Fubuki looked up at the tall structure in amazement. It was a rather large building for an academy. It had a large plot of land by the edge of the village where trees were in abundance. The building itself had a whopping seven stories.

"This is the ninja academy, you will be in the senior class, and it's on the seventh level."

Before Fubuki could turn to thank Ao, he disappeared in a poof of smoke. He sighed before entering the building.

"Well, if that wasn't rude I don't know what is." He huffed with a frown. Finding the staff room after following the signs on the wall, he took a breath in and knocked. He opened the door when he heard a voice allowing him to enter. He bowed lowly, "Hello, I'm a new student."

"Yes, we heard you were coming," The man who spoke rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked very tired and his desk had a few piles of paper on it. Most likely tests or homework. "Would someone else be able to bring him there? I'm too swamped with assignments here!" The man groaned, frustrated.

A lady stood up from across the room, "I will guide him to his class."

"Thank god!"

The woman chuckled at the male teacher's exasperation, and made her way to Fubuki. "Now let's get you to your class kid."

"Thank you ma'am." Acting so polite was starting to make him feel stiff, though it was best not to get on a ninjas bad side especially in his predicament. Walking slower than he would like, the teacher guided him to his class through the corridors and up the staircases. On the way to his class she made some conversation. It was a long way up and Fubuki hadn't made any attempt to talk, so she took the initiative to get things rolling. After all, she was one of his teachers, though not that he knew that yet.

"So, what makes you transfer here almost half way throughout the year?"

"Short notice and... family conflicts..."

"Hm," The lady noticed the change in his mood, Fubuki didn't look happy when she brought up that topic. Deciding to avoid a landmine, she asked his something else. "Then why do you want to be a ninja?"

"I like to fight, and I want to become strong."

She was amused by his answer. Kids aspiring to be in the shinobi business wanted either one of three things. Protect their family, gain revenge, or simply to be strong. Yes, she knew he fell into the third, though the odd thing that amused her was that he said he _liked_ fighting. So far she liked the kid. If he liked fighting, then what better job than a ninja who fights for their lives on a daily basis, hell he looked like he already had some experience in combat.

"Well, we're here, this is your class. Just wait until the teacher lets you in."

"Thank-" And poof, she was gone. Fubuki's eyes narrowed, he was getting frustrated. _Do people not have any manners here? Man... Junko has rubbed off on me. She was always a stickler for manners._

While he waited he looked out the window in the hallway, he could overhear the students talking.

"I heard we're getting a new student!" Someone spoke up, the class started to murmur, gossip and rumours starting up already.

"Yeah, I heard it's a boy!" A girl said.

"No, I think it's a girl, and she'll be _hot_."

"No, it's a _he_ and _he'll_ be hot!" The same girl corrected.

"G-guys, it doesn't matter."

"I wonder what they'll be like."

"I hope he or she's nice!"

Fubuki sighed, now he had high expectations that he probably wouldn't be able to fulfill. Then he heard the teacher calm the class down, or _try_ to.

"Calm down you runts! Just because your regular teacher isn't here doesn't mean you could misbehave." He could hear the teachers sigh of defeat from outside the room. Fubuki could feel the blank expression on the man's face from his tone of voice when he continued. "As you've been gossiping about, we've got a new student. So shut your traps so he can enter and introduce himself." A small uproar of whispering commenced after they noticed that their teacher had said 'he'. The class quieted down after Fubuki felt some killing intent. Then the teacher raised his voice, "You can come in."

Opening the door, Fubuki entered to have all eyes on him, he could feel the stares on his back while he closed the door behind himself. There were more children in the class than he had seen altogether so far through his life. It had only been Haku and himself in his village, so he felt awkward in front of so many people of his age.

Making his way inside, he observed the class and the teacher.

The supply teacher looked like he went through a lot. He had long dull coloured navy blue hair in a ponytail and a scar going from his jawline up to his temple. He also wore the standard Kiri chunin uniform. He was older, possibly retired and called in for the day, he didn't look like a happy person.

Looking at the class, he started to feel out of place. He was the only one wearing a kimono and he felt that he stood out unnecessarily, besides his white hair that he almost shared with one other student, he didn't want to scare them with his pointed teeth, so he tried to keep them out of sight.

The students were whispering amongst each other. Making eye contact with one of the girls, she blushed and shied away, fidgeting before looking down. He looked past the shrinking timid girl and noticed a group of students in the upper back corner. They didn't look very friendly. They were even giving him dirty looks. _Every class has to have that one bully group doesn't it?_ He sighed inwardly, hoping they wouldn't target the presumably weak new kid.

He kept a calm façade on even though he was panicking on the inside, he took a breath in. "My name is Tatsumaki Fubuki, I traveled here from my village to become a ninja. Please treat me well." He bowed slightly.

"Alright, take a seat anywhere, I don't care. Your teacher for the rest of this year should be back tomorrow. In the meantime you can call me Hikigaya-sensei or Hiki-sensei for short."

"Yes Sensei." He went and sat down in the front row where only a scarce amount of kids sat, he took a notebook out of his satchel and a pencil.

It was time to learn.

The subject was ninjutsu. Even though he already knew how to preform jutsu, he took down notes, hell he even created one jutsu, but that didn't make him an expert, not even close. One thing that he needed work on was his chakra efficiency, he usually wasted chakra on unnecessary things. He took down notes that would further him in his training, other than the things he already knew.

The sub finally stopped his lecture about using chakra efficiency and was giving them a break until the next subject. Fubuki stretched in his seat and stifled a yawn. He was stiff and didn't get to do his morning routine. It made him feel sleepy.

"Wow, I didn't take you as an avid note taker."

Fubuki blinked and looked over his shoulder, a boy with orange eyes and light brown hair was laying over his desk and looking down over Fubuki's notes.

"Just things that are important or things I don't know." He twirled his pencil around his fingers.

The boy laughed, it was a contagious laugh. "You look like you could kill with that."

"Hmm, I probably could." He mused before smirking maliciously, his eyes dancing with mirth.

The boy sweat-dropped, but got the humor.

"Oi, Hiro." A girl called, making her way to the two, another girl following her. "Don't hog the new kid, other people wanna talk to him too," She laughed. She had short black hair and hazel eyes. Her friend whom followed had dark blue hair and green eyes.

"Yes, yes, Shinon. I'll share." He chuckled, and looked to Fubuki whom was now surrounded by more people. "What's wrong? You look overwhelmed."

"Eh... Ah, well... It's just that I've never been around so many people of my age group before." Fubuki said nervously.

"Oh, I see. Then I have a plan!" Hiro announced, standing from his desk, palms on top. "Fubuki you stand in the front and people can ask questions until the teacher comes back."

"That sounds good," _It'll stop people from breathing down my neck._ "Though could it wait until lunch? The teachers bound to be coming back any second now." Just as he said this, the teacher slammed the door open.

"Alright brats, I've got a test for you all. It's based off the lesson we just had, so you had all been better paying attention!"

The class groaned.

After the test, the teacher gave out homework and study time. It turns out that the second half of the day was dedicated to outdoor activities. Like Taijutsu class and Genjutsu. Fubuki asked why the Genjutsu class was held outside, and Hiro told him that the teacher likes the outdoors.

Fubuki set out to finish the homework before anything else, despite the constant prodding from Hiro to waste time and chit chat.

The class ended and lunch began. Hiro urged him to get the questioning done before anything else so he walked down the stairs to the teacher's pedestal. Once there, he felt the teacher side of him take control. "So... Everyone will get one question. Also when you get picked could you please introduce yourself?"

"Hi, I'm Fuko and I was wondering... what's your type?"

Fubuki blinked, "I don't have a preference. What are we twelve?" He asked rhetorically and somewhat skeptically. "I'm only interested in training at the moment."

The majority of girls put their hands down. He sighed with a huff. "Any questions _not_ regarding any love interests?"

A boy put his hand up, "Hi, I'm Kyon. I was wondering what type of ninja you are planning to be."

"I would want to an offensive and possibly support type." _Oh... He probably meant what field. Like ninjutsu or something._

He heard a round of 'oohs' from the class.

It was interrupted by Hiro. "Hello there, you already know me as Hiro. Though my name is Takahiro, but you could just call me Hiro."

"Get on with it Hiro!" A student shouted.

"Yeah, yeah!" Hiro waved the complaints off. "So... what's your favorite food?!"

"Taiyaki," Fubuki said immediately, blank faced. Then his stomach growled, there was an awkward pause. "...Well then, I'm gonna go eat now." He hopped off the teacher's pedestal and exited the room to go on the roof.

"Wait!" Hiro called, but Fubuki had already left to who knows where. "Ugh, he doesn't know that we meet outside after lunch."

"Haha, don't worry. He'll catch on... Hopefully. Otherwise he will get a punishment from the teacher."

"I hope so."

Fubuki went to the roof for lunch, it turned out that nobody likes it up there because of the cold wind, but it was perfect for him. The bell rang and he didn't notice until he didn't hear the clatter from the floor below him. Realizing that he was almost late, he made his way to the classroom only to find nobody there. "Oh yeah, afternoon classes are held outside. I might as well change."

He changed into a pair of white pants and a black tank top. He didn't have any bandages on since he was fully healed now—even so he put his white trench coat on top. He didn't really care if people saw his scars, but it would raise some unwanted questions, thus he covered them up. He also put on his ninja shoes on to get used to them.

Returning to the roof for a vantage point, he found the class out in an empty field in the short distance, though from the top of the roof the angle may have impacted his judgment. The teacher seemed to be taking attendance. "Damn, I'm going to be late..." So he took the fastest rout there, not the stairs that would take decades. So he jumped off the building.

Lunging himself over the rails, he started falling right beside the building near the wall. Falling down past the second window from the top, he saw kids heads whip to his direction to see what was happening. Quickly approaching the first level, and the ground, he pushed off the wall, launching himself towards the class.

"Um, Amatsubu-sensei?" Takahiro put his hand up, sweat-dropping as he saw what was coming in overhead.

"What Takahiro, I'm trying to take attendance." The teacher had an irk mark, irritated from the interruption, and then coming in from the sky, landed Fubuki beside the new teacher. The teacher jumped at the sudden presence.

Fubuki let out a deep breath from the exertion of the launch. "I'm still late aren't I, Hiki-sensei?" The he paused for a moment as he didn't recognize the teacher. "You... are not Hikigaya-sensei..."

He took in the new teacher's appearance. He had white hair just like his own, though it was wavy rather than the flippy hair he had. His eyes were narrow and had dark bags under them, as if he was scrutinizing everything in existence. He wore a traditional black kimono and a budist necklace with large circular beads. He looked to be in his late thirties or mid-forties.

The new teacher raised an eyebrow, and the class had their mouths hanging in shock. "I am your Taijutsu teacher. You will call me Amatsubu-sensei. I'm assuming that you are Tatsumaki Fubuki, and for your punishment, I'm using you as a test dummy."

"For what Sensei?"

"You will see. Now stand in the circle." Amabatsu ordered.

There was multiple circles on the ground, so he entered the closest one.

"For this exercise you will be throwing balls at the person in the center. The person in the center has to evade as many balls as they can in the time limit." The teacher made some water clones and had them go around and form a circle around Fubuki. "You're going back to be my lab rat for this Fubuki."

"Just balls, not kunai?" Amabatsu nodded. Fubuki laughed with a little smirk, "Where's the thrill in that?"

"What, you _want_ it to be kunai?"

"Well what's training without a motive, hmm?"

"Heh, you got guts. Though how about no," and he started throwing the balls at low Genin speeds.

Fubuki looked bored as he turned and side stepped the balls. The teacher noticed that he was advanced enough for a faster throwing speed, so he increased the speed up to high Genin, low Chunin speeds.

"Ah, now this is training," Fubuki mused. He was content with the higher speeds, though it could be a bit faster to push him further.

An irk mark appeared on his teachers forehead along with a twitching eye and a frown. This had not gone to plan. His punishment was to shame him in front of his peers.

The class gulped and simultaneously thought the same thing.

 _Oh, he's so screwed..._

Amabatsu threw the last ball at what would be his top speed, out of frustration. Fubuki, not expecting the ball for he thought the exercise was over, stood there and relaxed his posture. He not notice ball flying towards him out of the corner of his eye until it was a kunai's length away from hitting his face. Out of reflex his arm shot out and he caught the ball.

The teacher, who hadn't been watching anymore since he was sure it would set the new kid in his place, was confused to why his students were still staring at what he thought to be an unconscious kid. Amabatsu turned to see Fubuki still holding the ball, with his eyes widened. _Did he just catch that?_

 _Did I just catch that?_

"Wow! You must teach me how to do that!" Takahiro jumped up from where he was sitting on the grass amongst the class.

"Enough! Start the exercise already. Get into groups of five and switch every five minutes."

"Um Amabatsu-sensei, should I join and make a group of six?"

"Yes, go join Takahiro's group."

"Hey Hiro, can I join your group?"

"Sure, but you're going last though, we already made the order. Here's a share of the balls."

It was Fubuki's turn and when he just entered the circle the teacher spoke. "That's enough, gather around. You'll be doing target practice now. Get into equal lines."

Fubuki had a hunch that the teacher did it on purpose and made an effort to not show how he felt. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"Hai!" The class chorused.

Target practice could have gone much better in Fubuki's books. It had turned out that he taught himself how to throw shuriken incorrectly. Kunai and senbon were fine but needed some work so they didn't waver through the air.

After that it was Genjutsu.

• • • • • •

Sighing, Fubuki left the school. The last class of the day was genjutsu, he had no clue to the theory behind it and it confused him to no end. He just couldn't grasp the concept. He found out that he could detect lower ranked genjutsu rather easily and dispel it with a bit of focus. If he didn't figure that out he wouldn't have been able to get to his teachers lesson. The woman layered genjutsu on top of each other to keep the students from the real lesson which kept a lot of students from the correct information. He realized that there was genjutsu in when he heard a chair move, but nobody caused it. When he broke it, it was a classmate at the other end of the room asking to go to the washroom.

He had been stupid. They were outside and the genjutsu made it so he was inside their classroom. It was only in the last half an hour that he felt a breeze tickle his hair _without_ any windows being open. He almost yelled in frustration when he finally dispelled that final layer of genjutsu. He was greeted by Hiro with a stupid grin saying, "Nice to see you finally came to join us!"

Takahiro got a good scare from the glare Fubuki sent him.

Fubuki sighed again for the tenth time since he left the school, turning a corner and went down a secluded dirt path. He was heading to the schools private training grounds. He had to start learning the techniques from the scrolls he had gotten from his father's study. Looking through the scrolls he read detailed descriptions of multiple jutsu.

Kawamiri, the substitution technique. You could substitute to an area you focus on and exchange places with the object you chose. Shinobi had sealing scrolls to accompany this technique since there wasn't always something to substitute with. The scroll would typically be full of logs which would take the brunt of an attack. When substituted the technique will place an illusion on the object to make the enemy think the attack hit. Using smaller objects, such as grass or stones, would take a mastery of the technique. Using smaller objects lessens the illusions power unless full mastery is achieved. The hand signs were, Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, and Snake. The Body Flicker technique is the parent jutsu of the kawamiri. It was a basic technique, not even C ranked. But it could change the flow in a battle and give you the element of surprise, therefore the upper hand.

Even though Fubuki had a busy schedule in between training and school, he had attained a part time job working as a waiter at a restaurant. Every evening he would work, from right after school until nine at night. The owner refused him until he showed him that he could henge to do the job, a henge of what he looked like in his past life—a younger version of teacher Charles. After a while he bought a small ragged apartment and lowered his availability for work.

The genin exams were approaching and he had to start preparing himself for it.

Within the months he had enrolled in the academy he learned the other two basic techniques. Transformation and the clone. Those were taught in the curriculum. On the side, during his own training, he learned some water and wind jutsu. He couldn't use his kekkei genkai with a civil war about to break out any year now, the tension was rising. He also advanced in iryo jutsu and could heal bruises and shallow cuts.

His classmates soon got over their 'new kid' fascination and started leaving him alone. It was refreshing to have them not crowd him during class breaks, though there was one person who wouldn't leave him alone. Takahiro. The boy was headstrong and optimistic even during the atmosphere of a coming civil war, but he also had this air of happiness that was always around him.

"Say, exams are coming up soon right?"

"Yes, it'll be on everything we have been taught. Taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and the regular circular things like math and history." Fubuki informed his friend, his first friend.

"I don't care for the written work. It's too much of a pain to remember those things! To be a ninja you just need to be able to fight!" Hiro said with a heated passion. "What do you think I should improve? We only have two weeks until testing..."

"Definitely math... Then ninjutsu, you have flaws in your transformation and clone techniques." Fubuki looked up to the sky as it started to snow, he smiled inwardly. "What about me then?"

"Genjutsu."

Fubuki made a face and sighed. "Of course... I'll have to ask for extra lessons on it if I want to improve."

"So..." Hiro crossed his arms behind his head. "You wanna train together?" He asked with a grin.

Fubuki thought for a moment. "Sure, but I work today I'll ask to change my schedule for the next two weeks." Even so he would have to sooner or later. He would also have to give a notice to his boss. That would be if he passed, then he would have to quit.

Training was going well with Takahiro. Fubuki was getting into his father's more advanced katas and tried using them in spars against Hiro. Hiro improved with leaps and bounds, his taijutsu was balanced, and he had a natural ability to adsorb impact properly. When hit he would direct the force and try to counter, the counter didn't work most of the time, but it could come to fruition. It was a work in progress.

Fubuki also got a good understanding of genjutsu, his teachers lessons helped him, yes. But surprisingly it was Takahiro's blunt and simple explanations and examples that helped him the most. Takahiro would be a good genjutsu user considering his out-of-the-box thinking and his understanding of the subject.

• • • • • •

 **(Dreamscape)**

 _Darkness surrounded him. He could feel the humidity in the air._

'These dreams are getting more realistic each time they happen...' _Fubuki looked around from where he was in the dark room. He felt the air shift and suddenly a light turned on._

 _"What will happen now?"_

 _Fubuki turned to where the light was coming from. It was a screen of some sort showing pictures or people. Fubuki looked at the screen to see someone familiar. Yagura, the Mizukage. There was an odd shadow behind him, like a silhouette of a person. The shadow was whispering into The Mizukage's ear about something._

 _'Am I, or rather Charles, watching a TV show?' Fubuki pondered. The scene changed suddenly. Charles looked different, a change in clothes and he looked cleaner, much older looking though. The images on the monitor also changed, this time it was scenes about Kisame. He looked older, around twenty and he killed someone of a larger stature. Yagura came out of the shadows and it turned out that he was being controlled by someone. Kisame left the village. He also saw snippets of a mission with what was called the cipher division._

 _Another change and he saw a familiar man with an eye patch and spiked up blueish hair. He was fighting a shinobi with weird pupil less lavender eyes. When the shinobi was defeated he took his eye. Afterwards Ao had a fight with another kekkei gengai user. The sharingan as was said in the show. The Shinobi was Shisui Uchiha._

 _Fubuki heard a yawn. "Oh, it's this late already?" Then the scene faded as Charles went to sleep._

 **(Dreamscape End)**

 _This is weird, Ao, Kisame and Yagura were all in colour, but the people I haven't met were all silhouettes..._ Fubuki thought while staring up at the ceiling.

Then he heard obnoxious knocking and he could only groan _. ...Hiro... Why..._ He looked to the clock above his dresser. It was early, too early. He sighed and got up out of bed.

"What the hell does he want at this ungodly time..."


	6. Chapter 6

"Fubuki!" There were loud, repetitive, annoying knocking noises that followed the shout.

A door opened with a slam. "How do you know where I live? Or rather, how did you find out?" Fubuki deadpanned with a glare.

The boy grinned but brushed his question off, not wanting to tell him his methods, which persisted of asking around and following him. "I found out that we have a kenjutsu school!"

Fubuki raised an eyebrow, he didn't know that, but it wasn't that surprising. "Hello. We live in the mist village, with the Seven Swordsmen..." Fubuki smirked at his friend's expression. Takahiro pouted. "Now why distur-"

"Hey!" He poked Fubuki in the chest. He didn't realize that he cut him off in the middle of a thought, Fubuki's irritation was skyrocketing. "Don't look at me like I'm stupid! Of course, I know! I just... forgot... temporarily."

Fubuki sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "As you were saying?"

"We have a kenjutsu school."

"Yes... You _just_ told me."

"We have a kenjutsu school," Hiro said again as if that made his point obvious. Fubuki stared at him blankly and Takahiro stared back, temper slowly building. "We. Are. Going. To. _Visit_. _It_ _!_ " He shouted and went to grab Fubuki's wrist.

"You aren't going to let me out of this are y—of course not." He cut himself off at the stubbornness that was coming off of Hiro in waves. He sighed, "Just let me get changed. It's not even a school day and you come barging in at six in the morning."

"Kay!" Hiro singsonged happily, the innocence in his voice made a bead of sweat form at Fubuki's temple. A few minutes passed and Hiro was getting impatient.

 _He could have let me in... He doesn't have... What's the word... Hospitality!_ Shaking out of his stupor, Hiro went to knock on the door again out of impatience. "Fu-" The door opened before the shout came as Fubuki came out.

"Ready."

"Jeez, you took long enough."

"I took a shower. It took about ten minutes." As if to prove that he did, Fubuki shook his head and water flung off his damp hair, getting Hiro wet. Hiro slowly wiped the water off with a mock dirty look to Fubuki.

"That's too long. Now come!" Takahiro grabbed his wrist and dragged him off.

"... Do you even know where it is?"

Hiro just smiled and shook his head. Fubuki took a deep breath and held back the urge to punch Takahiro upside the head.

"I haven't even had fucking breakfast."

"Oh, I didn't know you were a grump grump in the morning!"

 _That's because of_ you _Takahiro..._ Fubuki felt a vein bulge on his forehead near his twitching eyebrow.

He reined his anger in, grumbling. "I... need... _food_..."

"Don't worry okay? I'm for sure this time that it's this way!"

Fubuki sighed, "This is just the way to the academy." He knew from the familiar road that they were heading down. Hiro started humming and swinging his arms, twirling around and skipping.

"Mmhmm!" He grinned. He was excited to find out what the place was like.

Fubuki followed the unusually peppy boy down a narrower road that went further out. The forest got thicker and they came to another building. The building was smaller than the academy, but Fubuki wasn't really sure. It was really foggy so he couldn't tell if the building had any more levels.

Hiro jumped with a twirl and lifted his arms as if showcasing the building. "This is it!"

Fubuki couldn't understand how he could yell so loud in the morning. He was just glad that he had brought his bag along. It had a small scroll with food in it and Fubuki was so glad that he brought it. _So glad._

"Mmmnn... So what now?" He swallowed the rest of the food he was eating—though he could still go for a rations bar. Sure they didn't taste great, but it was packed full of nutrients and pretty filling.

"We invade!" Hiro went to march in when Fubuki just walked passed him. "Wai– _Hey_!" He jogged to catch up with his snow-haired friend in the building. "We need a battle plan!" He whispered.

"Or we could just walk in."

"Aww... But 'invade' sounds _sooo_ much cooler!" Hiro whined childishly with a pout as he followed Fubuki around the hallways. The two flinched when a booming voice brought their attention to a tall intimidating man.

"Hey, you kids don't go here!..." The man trailed off when he looked at Fubuki.

"Ao's aquatint... Kisamu?"

"It's Kisame brat." He bonked Fubuki on the head, "You know that already." Fubuki smirked, his banter with the monstrously large man seemed to make is friend uneasy.

"Fu-fu-fu- _Fubuki!_ How you know such a blue man! Are you okay? Are you sad? Do you need someone to comfort you?" Hiro ran circles around Kisame, amazed by his height and build, but even more so by his skin tone. He didn't really think of anything about his gills, he just thought they were cool. Like Fubuki's clan tattoos they were nothing different to him.

Kisame twitched at Hiro's stupidity. He grabbed the brunet by the head and towered over him. "Now listen here brat," His face was shadowed over and his eyes gleamed maliciously as he bared his pointed teeth.

"What's got you riled up Kisame?" Another voice came in. The man came out of the shadows of the hallway. He had short black hair and a tall stature similar to Kisame's, just an inch or two shorter.

"Oh, Zabuza... I was just going to show this _brat_ how he could become shark bait." The grip on the skull in his hand got tighter.

" _Hii!_ " Hiro shrieked in fear, he paled from the malicious intent rolling off of the blue man. It didn't help that another equally intimidating man walked into the party. His arms flailed around in a panic, "N-no please don't eat me! _Fubukiiiii!_ "

There was a deep sigh from the snow-haired boy. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't scare my friend." Fubuki looked up to Kisame with a challenging look. To further amuse Kisame, Fubuki smirked playfully, "He's already scared of you, let him _off the hook_."

At that Kisame snorted, the pun was all but unintentional. Hiro was in a weird state of fear and hysteric laughter, he found the pun hilarious, yes, but he was still being held up by the head. Kisame bared his pointed teeth one last time and smirked for a final measure to Hiro before dropping the nearly traumatized boy. He quickly scurried off and hid behind Fubuki.

"What are you doing here kid–"

"It's Fubuki. Please call me by it."

"Not a chance kiddo." Fubuki huffed in irritation at the smug grin he got from the shark man. "Wait until you actually become a shinobi."

"Why are you here?" Zabuza re-asked the question, though it didn't sound like a question, more of a statement.

Fubuki nudged Takahiro, the boy who had thought of the idea. He stayed behind Fubuki, using him as a shield.

"Uhh... I thought we could observe the classes. You see... We have graduation coming up and we—I... _I_ thought that we could learn a bit here..." Hiro changed to 'I' mid-sentence in reaction to an elbow in the stomach and a skeptical look from Fubuki.

"May we observe? Swordsmanship is a common skill with shinobi, it would help to enlighten us in how to defend ourselves." Fubuki reworded Hiro's persuasive speech into a more convincing version. It was a bit fancied up for his vocabulary but it would have to do.

"Heh, follow us you brats." Zabuza gestured for them to follow. _They have to have quite the backbone to come here willingly._ He looked over his shoulder to see Hiro looking around in awe, but once he noticed that Zabuza was observing him he clammed up and went behind Fubuki. Zabuza's eyebrow twitched in an amused fashion, a sweat drop forming at the boy's action. _Or he's just ignorant to what goes on here..._

As they were nearing the centre of the building they could hear shouts and the sounds or metal on metal.

"It sounds like a battlefield in there," Fubuki said when they reached the doors to the room.

Kisame looked down to see Fubuki smiling. _Is he excited?_ He had an unidentifiable glint in his eyes.

"This is the advanced sword academy. It's an addition to the academy that you two go to." Kisame explained.

"Then why can't we join it?" Hiro asked, he had been slowly getting used to the two intimidating men and could be himself, though not without flinching now and then.

"You aren't qualified, brats." Zabuza came in harshly, "Only in the first few years of the academy we examine the worthy. The weak fail, only the strong can attend."

"Hoshigake-senpai, Momochi-senpai!" A few students flocked over. There was a large age group from as young as seven to about fifteen from the looks of it. "Will you be helping today?"

"Oh, what a surprise, I didn't expect that he would send you two." A woman approached them. "The main teacher had to go on a mission, so I requested supply's."

"We are the only people off duty with sword experience." Zabuza scoffed and mumbled, "It's not like I _want_ to teach a bunch of brats."

Kisame laughed, "Aww Zabu-chan."

He knew it was intended to grate on his nerves, but Zabuza couldn't help the tick mark and a twitching eye.

"Kisa-chan..." Fubuki whispered and Hiro burst out laughing.

" _Pfft!_ _KISA-CHAN_?" The one and only Kisa-chan grabbed Hiro by the head for the second time. They could hear a low growl erupting from the older teenager.

"H-hey, I'm not the first one that said it!" He hastily pointed to Fubuki.

To make things worse Fubuki just clipped a laugh. "True."

Zabuza admitted to himself that he liked the white haired boy and Hiro. They had guts. He looked to Kisame who was cracking his knuckles.

"You want to _learn_ huh? Oh well, you'll _get_ to learn." His malicious smirk went well with that creepy laugh of his.

"Oh no." Hiro paled.

" _Oh yes._ " Fubuki smiled somewhat evilly and put a hand on Hiro's shoulder.

"You kid... don't tell me you planned this." Zabuza raised an eyebrow at Fubuki's obviously fake innocent face.

 _He did too..._

"You're a traitor!" Hiro yelled jokingly as Kisame sent them running with the other students. Hiro didn't notice the dark look that Fubuki had after he said that—Zabuza and Kisame certainly did notice Fubuki's change in expression.

The sentence sent Fubuki into a flashback. Memories of the day the village turned on his family, the day when he helped a village that didn't want his help. The fear of being found out hit him even harder. He looked to Takahiro, scared to find out if he would push him away after finding out about his ice kekkei genkai.

"Fubuki? You okay?" Hiro asked. But Fubuki didn't answer he had a lost expression as he ran beside him, eyes unfocused as if he was seeing something only he could see. "Fubuki!"

He blinked and came back to reality, "What?"

"We are done running."

"...Oh, thanks."

"What's wrong? You zoned out while we were running."

"Nothing, just tired still."

"Hmm... Well if you say so." Hiro didn't believe him, but if he would try to prod anymore he knew Fubuki would clam up.

Fubuki sighed and gripped his necklace that Haku gave him firmly. _I'm fine, no one knows._

"Alright brats, we will start with katas, then sparring. We have two guests today who want to know how it works around here _let's show them how it's done_!"

"Hai!" The class chorused.

Takahiro shivered at the loud volume, it was intimidating. He looked to Fubuki who wasn't fazed by the tactic.

They didn't know the katas for swordplay, so they did the ones that they already knew. The class's kenjutsu katas were advanced and they were all doing it at a high speed, in sync to top it off. Fubuki was impressed, he observed their katas while doing his own, he wanted to have some leverage in close quarters when facing a seasoned swordsman.

"Alright, I'll partner you up!" Zabuza stopped everyone from doing the katas. "You Fubuki, spar with..." He thought for a moment, he wanted a challenge for the kid, or rather Kisame did. So he partnered him up with a moderately advanced student. "Kenichi." In his mind, he thought Hiro to be partnered up with a less advanced student.

The students sat down and Kenichi stood in the space made.

 _So this is how it works here... They observe the spars individually to notice and fix their flaws with more detail._ Fubuki mused thoughtfully. It was different when training in the army, it was more quantity over quality when he first joined, but while out in the field they would be more focused on during drills.

"Well Hiro, I guess we get the spotlight today."

"Hahaha... Yeah..." He laughed nervously.

"Hey, Kenichi! Beat some sense into that old man!"

Fubuki turned to the source of the insult and sent them a dark glare. He didn't appreciate being called an old man, it was worse than kid in his opinion.

"Kenichi will be using his sword, do you have weapons Fubuki?"

"Hmm... One moment." He pulled out a scroll from his bag and got a couple kunai and senbon. He also got that bō staff out that he had wanted to test against kenjutsu. "Am I aloud long distance weapons?"

"Go ahead. I'll be using them too." Kenichi said as he patted his holster on his thigh.

Fubuki got into his stance. He had the staff in hand pointed towards Kenichi, the length of it resting against his back. Kenichi held his sword in one hand, with his other resting behind his back, near his back pouches.

"What's with the staff? You can't kill with it." A student murmured.

"Okay, begin!"

There was a stare down, neither of them wanted to make the first move. Fubuki sighed, his opponent wouldn't budge. So he took the initiative. He threw a kunai and ran behind it at the same speed. He threw another one just as Kenichi avoided the first. He was forced to deflect the second and didn't have a good enough reaction time to avoid a jab to the side. There was a decent amount of power behind Fubuki's punch, causing pain, but not much knockback. Fubuki had to bend down to avoid a horizontal swipe of the sharp sword. After a quick swing of his staff to Kenichi's shin, Fubuki got out of his swords range. He looked to see a few white hairs on the ground—his cowlick that he couldn't tame was no longer sticking up from his head.

"I didn't know a barber used swords. You might be out of your area, where're the scissors?"

"At home, it would have been too easy with em'."

As their banter ended Fubuki lunged forward with a kunai. When Kenichi dodged he whipped the staff from over his shoulder, the torque gave it more power and speed but hampered the ability to manipulate the staff afterwards. He got a hit on his clavicle, it was a hard hit; the staff being strong, flexible wood. After that Kenichi had a hard time using his arm, it was probably fractured, if worse broken. Fubuki disengaged from the fight.

"Heh, got scared?" Kenichi taunted through well-hidden pain. He couldn't lift his arm at the shoulder, but he could move from his elbow down.

"Your bone might be broken, if not it will be if you move it too much," Fubuki informed him, his tone darkened. "Or do you want me to finish the job?" He bared his pointed teeth so only he could see.

Kenichi paled, he could tell. He could tell that Fubuki had killed before. It was haunting. Yes as soon-to-be-shinobi they would have to kill. In the normal academy they only covered the topic sparsely, but in the sword academy, it was taught as an art. Where to attack, what points of the body bleed more or less than others, torture was even covered as an optional class. Just by looking at his teachers he could immediately tell that they had killed. It was obvious with them being seasoned shinobi. But he had never had someone younger than him have that same experience... and it frightened him to no end. Kenichi could see the death that Fubuki had seen in his eyes.

Kenichi composed himself and put his sword in his sheath, he didn't even have a chance to get a hit in with it. With the pace that Fubuki set he couldn't. "I withdraw. I want to see if my arms seriously injured, there's no need to make it worse than it might already be."

"I can check quickly." Fubuki sealed his staff back into a scroll along with his kunai. He walked over towards his brown haired opponent. His hands glowed blue before changing to a light sea foam green. Hovering his hand over the bone his chakra gave him a mental image of what it covered. "It's heavily fractured, put it in a sling and get medical attention."

"Can't you just do it?" Kenichi just assumed that Fubuki could with some medical ninjutsu.

"Well... I can't heal bones yet, but unless you want to be my test subject I wouldn't mind." Fubuki's response got quite the reaction out of Kenichi. "So unless you want more harm than good..." Fubuki grinned, showing his sharpened teeth.

Kenichi shivered, that grin reminded him of some hellish training that Kisame had put them all through. He had taken too much joy in that torture. _I never want to go through that again..._

"N-no thanks..."

"Hmm, well looks like one of you has talent. Then what about the other?" Kisame put the pressure onto Hiro. "Get up there kid."

"H-hai!"

"Takashi, show him who's boss!" A few students shouted.

As Hiro went up he went to walk passed Fubuki when his friend put a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Good luck," and hit him on the back with a chakra enhanced slap, thus making him stumble forwards into the makeshift stage. It was quite a hard slap and he cringed.

"Fubuki, sheesh! Control your strength!" Hiro complained and gave a glare and a pout to his white-haired friend, that's when he saw a rare smile on his face. "That's gonna leave a bruise!"

"Now that's the Hiro I know. So get out there and... Try not to get beaten to a pulp. No offense."

"Just because you say 'no offense' it doesn't mean I don't take offense. So... I feel _totally_ offended." Then Hiro dropped the topic and spun to face his opponent. "Taka, huh? Our names are similar!"

"That's... nice?" The boy raised an eyebrow at Hiro's cheeriness.

"Well... Shall we fight?"

"Yeah..."

"..."

They both shifted uncomfortably.

Zabuza sighed, his hand sliding down his face. "Just... Just begin."

Hiro shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, okay," Hiro smirked to himself and reached for his pouch, making it look like he was scratching his back. "Frick Fubuki! That _did_ leave a bruise!"

"Sorry!" He heard his voice from the back by Zabuza.

Hiro whipped some kunai and one had a tag on it, a smoke bomb. While Takashi was deflecting Hiro tied some wire to a kunai.

"What the–"

 _Fsssshhhh!_

The smoke tag went off. Takashi coughed and brought his scarf up to cover his nose and mouth. While the smoke cover was still there Hiro spun the wire around Takashi's sword and looped the kunai around it. Takashi felt a light tug on his sword and jabbed forwards.

Takahiro narrowly avoided being stabbed through the chest when he leaned back into a bridge. It took all he had not to scream, but he had to keep his cover, Takashi still didn't know where he was. Hiro tried inching his way out of the range of the sword, he let out a breath of relief when he got up without falling.

Hiro left the slowly dissipating smoke and felt people's eyes go on him—he grinned and yanked on the wire.

"What!" Takashi's sword went flying out of his hands and Hiro paled when he almost caught it by the blade. That would not have gone well.

"What can you do without your pointy stick now?" Hiro taunted. He waved the sword around tauntingly.

"Argh!" Takashi lunged forwards. Takahiro's attitude was starting to piss him off. Takahiro threw the sword and it spun wildly while on course for his opponent. His eyes widened into disks and just barely dodged it by a millimeter. He saw his reflection in the blade as it passed by his nose.

"Woah! That is _not_ how you use a sword!" He shouted as he looked to where his sword landed hoping it was not broken. _That was damn expensive._

Hiro took his chance when Takashi was distracted to trip him. He quickly wrapped the wire around his wrists and pinned him to the ground. Hiro blinked owlishly.

"... Did I just? I think I won."

"Not. Yet." The boy under him struggled to get his hands untied out from under Hiro. A few seconds later and nothing happened.

"Yeah, I think I won."

"Winner, Takahiro..." Zabuza sighed. _Well that was... creative. Uneventful... but creative._

Takahiro ran over to Fubuki and punched him on his back. "That's for the slap earlier, thanks though."

"I guess we lost the bet. We will let you visit and train here, only while we are here though." Zabuza said the conditions.

"How long is that?" Hiro asked.

"Roughly until the genin exams."

Fubuki smirked. "Perfect. Then I'll be back tomorrow."

"Wait, Fubuki! Don't leave me here!"

Before leaving he went to Kisame. The older teen looked down to him. "I'd like you to keep him here until the others are done. He needs the experience."

Kisame grinned wickedly, "No problem. He will be crying by the end of it."

"Fuuubuuukiii whyyyyy!" He already had tears forming, fear clawing through his veins. He could see the laughter in the others students eyes. "You sadist!"

• • • • • •

Fubuki left to go into his secret training ground. It wasn't actually a proper training ground, a wind jutsu went wrong and cleared out some trees deep in the forest. Nobody knew about it and the fog was unusually thick and heavy there, so it was perfect for practicing his kekkei genkai.

He had gotten the weapon making down, and he could even make shuriken now too. But he wanted to make a very specific knife. The Jagdkommando Knife. In one of his dreams he had been stabbed by a smaller version of the knife, and it took a team of surgeons to stop the bleeding and close the wound. He had a strong mental image of the killer knife. It had three sharp edges starting from the handle and coming to a point in a spiral. It had small holes like a cheese grater in the middle of each curved part about an inch to the tip. That part did the most damage. With the spiral of the knife it would shred the body on the inside. It wasn't a slashing blade, it was meant for a twisting stabbing motion.

He almost died and it was the most excruciating pain he had ever felt before—thus the strong and vivid memory of the incident.

Since he had a strong mental image it only took a few tries to make it. It felt cold to the touch, well it was ice, and very sharp along the tip and along the three blades. He tested it on a tree for it to only go in about half way before getting stuck. Trying to pull it out with no avail, he remembered that he could just re-adsorb the chakra and it would vanish. He would like to have that in his usable weaponry, but he couldn't use his ice for obvious reasons. He also didn't have the skill to draw it and get it custom made, money was also a problem, and questions would arise if a kid no older than twelve wanted such a knife.

He would have to wait awhile to be able to get that knife.

Sighing, he stretched from his seat on a tree stump. A few joints cracked and he yawned. It was just past noon and he was tired already. He blamed Hiro. Bouncing on his feet to get his body warmed up, he started stretching his stuff muscles before running through the thick marsh further into the distance.

It was difficult traversing through the marsh in the thick fog. Most of the mud and water had been frozen, but not all the way through. Sometimes Fubuki's foot would crack through some thin sheet of ice and plunge into a puddle of water or thick mud, and occasionally the ice would cut him along with some sharp branches.

It was quite a hectic run.

He noticed the fog overhead getting a purplish hue, nightfall was coming. Sure he could stand the cold, but be wanted to get a good night's rest on a comfy bed. He had even bought a new mattress since his old one in the apartment was old and dingy.

Getting back into town he was getting weird looks. Frankly he didn't care and ignored them. That's when something tackled him full throttle in the back.

" _Oof_!" The breath was knocked out of him and he wheezed.

"Fubuki!"

He groaned and pushed himself upright, knocking the person who tackled him off his back, and looked to the culprit.

"Hiro..." He craned his head up to see three familiar people, "Ao, Kisame, and Zabuza too."

"You look like shit kiddo."

He looked himself over, he had dirt marks all over his clothes and hair, a bunch of bruises and scrapes, and to top it off he looked wet and cold. He also noticed his calves bleeding from gashes he didn't notice earlier.

"Did you go through hell after we were done with you or what?" Zabuza asked, raising an eyebrow at Hiro who was clutching onto the boy.

Fubuki chuckled and smirked, "Well it wouldn't be fair if I didn't after I left him with you two." He patted Hiro's head.

Ao chuckled at that.

"Hiro, get off." He nudged the boy, "You reek."

"Oh like you should talk!" He sniffed, "You smell like death!" Of course it was just an exaggeration; it was actually a really strong earthy smell with stale swamp water. Not to mention sweat because Hiro was the same in that regard.

Fubuki sighed, "We both need to get cleaned up. The civilians are giving us some weird looks."

"Hot springs?" Hiro offered, though Fubuki didn't want to, but Hiro was giving him the look. His puppy eyes could bend anyone to his will. "Zabuza and Kisame-sensei said they would take me there with you! Free of charge."

Fubuki blinked. They weren't the type to generously offer to pay for a hot spring trip. He looked at Hiro's grin and up to Kisame's grimace. Ah, there must have been a bet. Zabuza's chuckling while glancing to Kisame had further convinced him that it had been one.

"Sure. If they were so _generous_ I would _gladly_ take up this _kind_ offer." Fubuki grinned to Kisame with equally pointy teeth.

"Damn I hate this brat." Kisame cursed under his breath. He also hated that he could feel himself smile as he said that.

"Great!" Hiro shouted with enthusiasm, not taking notice of Kisame's fowl expression. "We will meet there in fifteen."

"Settle down Hiro," Fubuki scolded, "Where is it? I need to grab a fresh set of clothes and I'll have you know I don't know Kiri like the back of my hand yet."

Ao chuckled at Fubuki's tone towards his friend, "I'll guide you."

Fubuki looked up to the man, "You've been doing that a lot." Ao gave a ghost of a shrug. Fubuki turned to his apartment. Ao followed.

"So when did you join them?" Fubuki asked, curious.

Ao found himself smiling. "I heard that those two were substitutes for the Kenjutsu academy. When I arrived… I found a peculiar scene. Your friend Hiro and Kisame were arguing and made a bet." Ao took notice that Fubuki wasn't surprised. "Kisame challenged him and said that he would uphold a request if he could land a hit on the best student there."

"Hiro has potential. He is creative and flexible."

Ao nodded.

Fubuki stopped and looked to Ao, "I'll be right back." They were at his apartment complex. Fubuki came out not a minute later. In his hand was a small scroll with his clean clothes and shampoo along with other body cleaning supplies. "Let's get this over with." He heard Ao chuckle.

But it wasn't funny. Fubuki had a terrible feeling and he knew that it was about the onsen they were going to. He wasn't scared of a lot of things, but Hiro could make anything happen.

• • • • • •


End file.
